Something Interesting
by vcawarrior15
Summary: When you find out something that you never expected, things can get interesting.
1. The Note

Isabella walked along the school's hallway like she did every other day. Not terribly much had changed since those summers a few years ago, sure getting older and probably most surprising, her insane crush on Phineas nearly disappearing. She still liked the guy, everyone but "said crush" still know that, but she had finally accepted that he wasn't probably gonna ever think of her more than just one of his closest friends. It wasn't a complete loss; she had found another guy, Dallas, who had been what every girl probably would want during high school. They had started hanging out when they had started going to high school. He was a transfer because of his dad's job forcing them to move to Danville, and once he had met Phineas, Ferb, and the rest of the group, the rest was history. They were all great friends, so Isabella didn't think much of still hanging out with Phineas when Dallas wasn't there; Dallas didn't seem to mind so she didn't push the issue.

Entering the first class of the day, she saw the always early red-head she had known, for all extensive purposes, ever, sitting at his desk. Although more peculiar than normal, instead pouring over his textbook, or drawing away on some blueprint he planned to use sometime later that year, his expression seemed troubled. She noticed the difference in demeanor and wondered what might have been causing his turmoil. Then as she stepped more into the classroom, she notices he was staring at what appeared to be a hand written note. Yes, not that terribly exciting, but a troubled Phineas was much more interesting.

Isabella wormed her way to her desk next to Phineas, setting her books down hard to cause a jolt from Phineas. It did cause Phineas to shake himself out of his stupor, and turned to see his lifelong friend sitting down at her desk.

"Oh, hey Isabella," Phineas greeted.

"Hey Phineas, whatcha' readin?" Isabella asked sweetly.

Phineas looked down at the note that was in his hands. "Oh this?" Phineas folded the note and slid it into his jeans pocket. "It's nothing."

"Well, it didn't seem like nothing. When I came in here, you looked like you were trying to stare a hole through the chalkboard."

Phineas' cheeks turned a little red, embarrassed that someone saw him that "out of it." "Yeah, it was just making me think was all. So, did you finish the homework for Mr. Stanford's class?"

Isabella knew better than to change the subject that easily, but she doubted that further prying was going to get her anywhere. "Yeah, I got it finished. I had some trouble with the calculations, though."

"Do you have your notes with you? Maybe I can help you out."

"Yeah, that'd be great." Isabella fished out her notebook for that class. Phineas began to explain this and that, with Isabella nodding at the correct times to make it look like she was actually hearing what he was saying. _If it wasn't that big of a deal, why did he drop it that quick? I know him better than that, but whatever, I'll ask him later._

(*)(*)

The day passed rather normally, going to class, being bored in class, going to a different class, being bored in that one, and so on. But thankfully the lunch bell finally rang, and Isabella wormed her way through the every other hungry teenager that was making their way to the cafeteria. Thankfully, she found an easy path and didn't have to nearly beat people out of the way. She scanned the cafeteria for some of her friends to sit with. Looking toward their usually spot, Phineas and Ferb were discussing something, but the more she watched, the more obvious that they were not agreeing. She did notice that they were both motioning down to something on the table. A quick look showed her that they were motioning at that same weird note that Phineas had from before.

_What, that note again? What is on that note? _Isabella asked to herself.

She finally got into earshot of their conversation, but Phineas seemed to notice her. He grabbed the note and shoved into his pocket.

"Hey Isabella." Phineas greeted with a wave.

"Hey guys, whatcha doin'? Isabella asked like always.

"Oh nothing, just talking." Phineas replied. Isabella noticed Phineas' hand twitch toward the direction of his ear, but he managed to keep his hand from moving that much.

Ferb waved hello and then turned back to Phineas, glaring at him. Isabella had spent enough time around Ferb to finally understand most of his silent words; and from the looks of it, Ferb was telling Phineas that he should do something. Phineas' body language was screaming that, no he wasn't going to do anything of the sort. The brothers continued this awkward staring contest till Isabella performed the awkward cough, reminding the brothers that she was still there.

The brothers looked over at Isabella and realized that they had indeed got lost in their "argument."

"So is everyone hungry? I don't know bout you, but I'm starving." Phineas asked as he stood up, walking to the food lines. Ferb sighed and shook his head as he followed his brother. Isabella set her books down and followed suit, but that didn't stop her thoughts from changing.

_So let's recap, today Phineas has acted rather strange. He has hidden a note from me every time that I've been around him. And he and Ferb are disagreeing about something that is involving that same note. Dang it Flynn, what are you hiding?_

((**))((**))

The rest of the day proceeded rather normally; everyone went to class, talked during breaks between, and repeat. But for Isabella, it was rather annoying. For most of her classes, she was taking it with Phineas, and that note that now seemed to be taunting her. Normally, something as stupid as that note would have been something that she just left alone and never thought of again. But this was Phineas Flynn, and on top of that, he was hiding something from her; and as the former Fireside girl wanted to know what it was. By the time the final bell rang, she was at her wit's end. As she stood by her locker as everyone else was grabbing their things out of their lockers, she was off in her own world, contemplating what it would be.

_Maybe it's a blueprint, but if it was a blueprint, why would Phineas and Ferb be arguing over it? Well that isn't that a big deal, they've argued over designs before. But they did disagree about something that was involving me and that note. Maybe they wanted my opinion on something, and Phineas didn't want to ask it because he was too embarrassed. Sounds like the most logical explanation, it wouldn't have been a big deal, but considering that, according to Ferb, that Phineas isn't the best around girls, it wouldn't surprise me. Or maybe-_

"Isabella." Ginger called Isabella's name.

Isabella got shaken out of her thoughts. She turned back to the group that was now waiting on her.

"We are all about to head over to Joe's, are you going to come?"

"No thanks, my tutoring session is today."

"That's right you get to spend alone time with Phineas." Ginger teased. Isabella smiled as she rolled her eyes. "Alright, if you two get done, shoot me a text and if we are still there, you guys should come on over."

"Alright, I'll tell Phineas. Bye guys." Isabella waved as she headed to the Chemistry classroom. When she got to the room, Phineas was sitting, reading the textbook.

Hearing footsteps, Phineas turned toward the door and smiled as his pupil.

"Hey Isabella, what can I help you with today?"

"Same as always," she replied, setting her books down on the table.

"Alright let's see what you need."

Isabella pulled out her notes and the two started working on some Chemistry work. Isabella was thankful that Phineas was willing to help her understand and in only twenty minutes, her homework was done and she knew how to do it.

"That's about it. Any other questions?" Phineas asked

"No, I think that's everything." Isabella replied, closing the textbook for the day.

"Alright, I'll go ahead and start cleaning up." Phineas started on picking up some papers as Isabella grabbed her stuff into a pile. Isabella barely had everything in her arms, but she needed to thank Phineas for his help. A quick turn to face Phineas instead ended with both the girl and the guy bumping into each other, papers flying everywhere.

"Oh no, I'm so sorry." Isabella apologized.

"No biggie." Phineas shrugged as he started picking up the stray papers. Isabella followed suit, grabbing and separating papers for the respective owners. In the fray of picking up papers, Isabella noticed a rather crumbled and folded up paper. Curious, she picked it up and tried to see what it was. Isabella was shocked to see that it was the note that Phineas had been hiding from her all day. Hoping Phineas wouldn't catch her, she stuffed the note into a pile of her papers.

After the papers and books had been cleaned up, both Isabella and Phineas left the room.

"So are you going to Joe's?" Isabella asked.

"Yeah, I'll go on to Joe's. Do you need a ride?" Phineas offered.

"Nah, I'm going to go ahead and put these things back in my locker." Isabella replied, holding up the pile of papers.

"Alright, I'll see you in a little bit." Phineas waved as he headed out toward his vehicle.

Isabella walked slowly toward her locker until she knew that Phineas was out of earshot. As soon as he was, she walked quickly to her locker and threw everything inside. Fishing through the papers, she found the one thing that she had been dying to look at for most of the day, the note Phineas had been keeping from her all day.

"Alright Flynn, what have been up to?" Isabella questioned as she unfolded the note.

Opening the note she began to read.

_I'm hoping that this note will make me feel a little bit better. It's either this or just sit here and act like nothing is bothering me. I guess it would be best to just get on with it. I like you Isabella._

"What?" Isabella yelled, quickly seeing if anyone heard her. She shock of the initial shock that Phineas liked her to continue reading the note.

_I know it's a bit shocking, I thought it was a little strange myself, but the older I got and the more that I hung out with you; the more that I wanted to be around you, the more I just wanted to talk to you, the more, well to be quite honest, I started to like you._

Isabella's jaw started to go slack. This was all a complete surprise to her. She really didn't know what to think.

_I'm not exactly what people would call a 'ladies' man, and Ferb makes sure that I constantly know that; but he can go suck on a lemon. I'll say that I'm sorry that I didn't figure this out before you were taken by Dallas. Now that there's nothing wrong with Dallas, and you two look like you guys are happy together, and I'm glad for it. I'm going to stay away from you two because I don't want to cause something that would mess up you guy's relationship. _

_You will always be one of best friends that I will or ever had, nothing will ever change that. And if something ever does come between you and Dallas, I'll be here if you want to take a chance with me._

Isabella was now torn. She was in a good relationship with a great guy, and now she found out that the guy that she liked for nearly ten years liked her back and would start dating her if he got the chance. She would admit that she was a bit angry that he would tell her that he liked her, after the fact that she was in a relationship with someone else.

_I do admit writing this did make me feel better. I just hope that you never actually read this. I would never want this to change what you feel. If I was going to say one more thing to you, it would be that I like you, and I hope that you are happy with Dallas. _

_Carpe Diem,_

_ Phineas Flynn._

Isabella finished the note, and turned the paper over to see if there was more to read. Maybe this was just some weird dream. She even pinched her arm to see if it would wake her up.

"What are you doing," Addison asked her friend as she found Isabella pinching herself.

"Oh, uhh, nothing, just making sure that I was awake."

"Okkk… why where you pinching yourself?"

"It was something that I read."

"Oh really, what was it?" Addison asked.

Isabella took one more look at the note and then one last look in the direction of the boy that had written it.

"Something interesting."


	2. Uncle Joe's

"Something interesting."

"Something interesting, huh? Care to elaborate?" Addison asked.

Isabella folded the note and slipped it in her pant pocket. "Not right now. Hey, everyone's gone to Uncle Joe's subs. I'm about to head over there now. Are you done with the school paper?"

"Yeah, I just finished. I thought it would be similar to the Fireside Gazette, but the high school paper's much bigger."

"That's what I've heard. So you want to come to Joe's with me?"

"If you don't mind dropping me off here afterwards to get my bike."

"That's fine. I still don't know why you still ride a bike to school." Isabella asked, pulling her letter carrier out of her locker, shoving a few books inside.

"Who wouldn't always ride a bike that was tricked out by Phineas and Ferb?"

"Yeah, you're right." Isabella responded, shutting her locker for the weekend.

As Isabella and Addison finally left the school and headed to the local sub shop, Isabella was thankful that Addison didn't press the issue of that note. In fact, by the time they had gotten to Hoe's, she had nearly all but forgotten that she had the note in the first place. The news that she had received from the note was still fresh and on the front of her mind, not without a constant reminder that it was there, she found it was easier to no reflect on it.

Isabella pulled in an open parking spot, parked the car, and removed the key. The two long time friends continued to chat away about this and that as they made their way into the gangs' local hangout spot. Uncle Joe's shop had become that little hole that not many people came in and out; just those that knew it was there. The gang found that it also had some of the best food in town, and for a bunch of hungry teenagers, it definitely came to the top of the list of their favorite hang out spots.

As Isabella entered the small building, a quick look around the small store showed that the normal gang was at their favorite table, with Baljeet having a heated argument.

"Since when did that ever matter?"

"Since always."

"No, there is no reason to believe that just because most of the technology from the Stumbleberry Finkbat movies is already available to us doesn't mean that it makes it a better series than 'Space Adventures'." Baljeet argued as Isabella sat down next to Milly and Addison sat across from her, putting a kiss on her boyfriend's cheek, Ferb, before sitting down.

"You are also forgetting that you can apply many skills and tricks from the 'Finkbat' movies to real life situations, as opposed to 'Space Adventures'." Milly argued.

"Did you also forget that the technological advancements in the 'Space Adventures' get rid of many of the skills you might get from the 'Finkbat' movies; not to mention that…"

Isabella rolled her eyes at the entire argument as Baljeet continue to argue, and then looked over at Phineas who just shook his head. Katie joined the group, handing out drinks to those that were there first.

"So here are your drinks. Water for Baljeet, Chocolate Milk for the Flynn-Fletcher brothers, and a sweet tea for Milly." Katie recited their orders.

"Thank you," the group replied in unison.

"Isabella, Addison, you guys want something?" Katie asked the newcomers.

"I'll take water please." Addison replied.

"Chocolate milk sounds good to me." Isabella responded.

"Alright, so I'm assuming everyone is eating before heading back for the game tonight?" Katie asked the group. Everyone nodded in reply. "Everyone getting the usual?" Again, everyone nodded.

"Hey Bryan, six Candace Specials!" Katie yelled to the short order cook.

"Got it… wait, is Baljeet getting one?"

"Yep."

"Kay, it'll be ready in a few minutes. I'm guessing that Phineas is out there?" Bryan asked from behind the counter.

"Yeah, I'm out here." Phineas yelled back.

"Do you have an extra set of notes or at least a set I can copy for Algebra?"

"Yeah, let me check. Why where you not at class again?" Phineas asked as he pulled his backpack out from underneath his seat.

"Flat tires are not conducive for getting to school on time." Bryan replied.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Phineas pulled out a large stack of papers from his backpack.

"Geez Phineas, how many notes did you take?" Addison asked.

"Not this many. When I was cleaning up from tutoring, I dropped these papers and never rearranged them."

Phineas began to sort the papers by subjects, going one subject at a time. Eventually he had fished out all of his algebra notes and had set them to the side. He then began to rearrange all of his other notes, subject by subject until all of the notes had found a place. But Phineas suddenly realized something. To the untrained or unknowing eye, Phineas was just checking to see if he had correctly arranged all of his notes. But to Isabella and Ferb, they can see that Phineas was having a miniature meltdown. Isabella moved her hand into her pocket and felt the piece of paper that she knew that Phineas was looking for. It crossed her mind to give it back to him, but any thought of doing that was quickly shot down of the repercussions.

"Hey Phineas, is something wrong?" Millie asked, being the first one to notice that something was a little different with Phineas.

"He he, uhh nothing… just making sure that I sorted everything correctly." Phineas replied, giving an uneasy smile.

Being one of the few people that knew his tell, Isabella watched as Phineas tried his best, but couldn't help it, slowly raising his hand to his ear, and slowly started scratching.

"Hey Phineas, is something wrong? You're scratching your ear pretty hard." Addison questioned.

"Na, nothing's wrong, just itchy." Phineas answered, scratching his ear even harder.

Isabella started finding harder and harder to watch as Phineas struggle to keep up this charade, especially when she knew that she was the cause of it all. Tired of seeing Phineas suffer, she reached into her pocket, about to hand Phineas the note, but at that moment, Katie came to the table with everyone's order.

"Alright, so here's a Candace special for Phineas, Ferb, Millie, Addison, Isabella, and finally Baljeet." Katie recited, handing each person their plate as she said their name.

"Wait," Baljeet stopped Katie. "Is this sandwich made with white instead of wheat bread?"

"Yes," Bryan replied from behind the counter.

"Did you cut off the crusts?"

"Yes."

"Use the shredded cheese instead of the normal cheese slices?"

"Yes."

"Did you cut the sandwich horizontally instead of diagonally?"

"For the last time, yes. I remembered all of your crazy requests."

"Thank you," Baljeet thanked before taking a big bite of his super-picky sandwich.

As everyone started eating, the newest member to the group came in, standing beside the table, putting a small kiss on Isabella's forehead.

"Hey guys," Dallas spoke to the group.

"Hey Dallas," everyone responded that didn't have food in their mouth; the rest simply waved. Looks like everyone is here… oh, Phineas, Bryan asked me to either get or at least ask that Bryan borrows algebra notes cause of him missing class this morning."

"Got it taken care of, he asked me already." Phineas replied, pouring ketchup on the side of his plate for his French fries.

"He already asked you? When did he do that?" Dallas asked.

"When I was fixing everyone's food." Bryan replied from behind the counter.

"Ahh that would explain it. But why are you here, I thought it was your day off."

"Nah, that's next week, besides I get to spend more time with my favorite girl in the world." Bryan replied.

"Aww, you're so sweet." Katie responded. "But anyway, Dallas, do you want to get something?"

"Not right now, I mostly came to see if everyone is still up for movies next week?"

"Oh that's right; next week is movie night isn't it?" Ferb remembered at Dallas' prompting.

"Right, so is everyone still ok with next week?" The group mumbled amongst themselves and agreed on the date. "So next is whose house is it going to be at."

"I did it last time so it's someone else's turn." Addison responded,

"I would but me and Ginger have a date next week, so we won't be there." Baljeet added, removing himself from the list of people.

"Same with me and Buford." Milly added.

"Katie are we going?" Bryan asked his girlfriend.

"I want to go but I can't have it my place. We are in the middle of some renovations and that wouldn't be good for anyone."

"Why don't we just have it at our place?" Phineas asked out loud. The group looked at each other and considered the offer.

"Sounds good to me." Addison answered.

"Yeah, me too." Bryan chipped in.

"Are you sure that it will be alright with your parents?" Isabella asked the brothers.

"It should be. Mom and dad have wanted us to have people over and remember that we have that home theater where Candace's room used to be before she got married."

"Sounds like everything is settled. Are we deciding movie now or later?" Dallas asked the group.

"Later, and don't forget it's the girls turn to decide." Addison reminded. Most of the boys groaned, remembering what happened last time the girls got to pick the movie. (Trust me, not a good day for the guys.)

Isabella smiled at the boys reaction before taking another bite of her sandwich. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, just glad to be with one another. But for some reason, she had this feeling that things were just a little bit different. Another bite of her sandwich pushed most of these thoughts in the back of her mind for the time being, but she felt like things were going to get messy…

(*)(*)

Phineas and Ferb were walking the short distance home from the school's football game. Normally on a night like this, Phineas would be on an adrenaline rush, having been cheering the entire game, especially after another win tonight. But instead this night, he was keeping his hands in his pockets, apparently more interested in the cracks in the sidewalk more than what everyone was doing around him.

Ferb on the other hand had taken great notice at Phineas' change in normal behavior. And in this case, was not going to be his normal silent self.

"Talk."

"What?" Phineas looked up from the ground toward his step-brother.

"Talk, these is something bugging you."

"I think something has made you a little crazy. Nothing's been bothering me." Phineas replied, lifting his hand to scratch his ear.

"Phin, please. If me having been your brother for the past 14 years didn't mean anything; I know that you're lying when you scratch your ear."

Phineas realized that he was still scratching his ear, so he put his hand back in his pocket.

"Well, I guess there's no use in hiding it, so yes, there may be something bugging me."

"If by something you mean I'm assuming that note you wrote about your liking Isabella."

"Yes, that would be it." Phineas answered.

"So why are you having a big deal over it? And I still believe that you should rewrite it and give it to her." Ferb continued.

"I know. You've made that perfectly clear." Phineas glared.

"I mean you've never really been that good with the girls…" Ferb continued.

"Thank you for reminding me." Phineas replied sarcastically.

"I'm just trying to say that even though the upfront approach might not be good for you, I think that the note…"

"The note's missing." Phineas interrupted.

"What?"

"The note, it's missing." Phineas finally admitted.


	3. Sneaking Suspicions

"The note, it's missing." Phineas finally admitted.

"What do you mean that the note's missing?" Ferb asked, not believing what Phineas was saying.

"Well what is the definition of 'missing'?" Phineas asked sarcastically.

"Absent; lost; lacking." Ferb recited, much to Phineas' chagrin. (**A.N.: Yes, that is the Webster's definition)**

"You know what I meant, moron."

"Well have you looked everywhere; do you remember where you last had it?" Ferb asked.

Phineas shrugged as they started walking back home. "I've looked everywhere I can think of. As you have previously stated, I first noticed that I didn't have it when we were at Joe's. I haven't had a good chance to go through the car yet but other than that I have no idea where it might be."

"Well do you remember the last time you had it."

"The only time I can remember having it was when sometime at school. I just don't know where else it might be." Phineas sighed, feeling rather defeated.

"Alright, alright, listen. When we get back home, I'll go through your notes again, and tear the car apart if you have to. Once we go through all of that, we'll backtrack." Ferb suggested.

"Yeah, I guess that'll work."

"And if we can't find it, it's probably lost. The worst case scenario would be that Isabella had the note. That'd be hilarious wouldn't it?" Ferb joked with Phineas.

"Yeah, hilarious…" Phineas replied.

(*)(*)

"Thanks again for inviting me over for the night." Addison thanked Isabella. Isabella had asked Addison if she wanted to stay over at her house, and after a quick bike ride from her house to Isabella's, the girls were in their pajamas, spending some 'girl' time together.

"It's no problem. I'm just glad that you got to come."

"Ha, my mom practically shoved me out the house. She just loves it when she gets the house to herself." Addison laughed as she flipped through a popular magazine.

"And mom just loves having guests. Can our moms be more opposite?" Isabella asked as she put some nail polish on her fingers.

"I doubt it." Addison replied, flipping through the magazine.

"How are things with you and Ferb?" Isabella asked, putting in on the last bit of polish before starting to clean up her things.

"Oh, we are doing great. Just the other day got me the most cutest little stuffed bear ever."

"Is he even cuter than Mr. Wuggles?" Isabella raised an eyebrow at the small inside joke.

"Hey, that was uncalled for." Addison retorted defensively. "And Mr. Wuggles and Mr. Wiggington are getting along just fine." Isabella couldn't help herself anymore and busted out into laughter. Addison sneered playfully. "Well fine, Ms. Giggles, how are things with you and your boyfriend?"

"Oh, everything is fine. I'm expecting a text from him any moment now wishing me pleasant dreams."

As if on cue, Dallas' ringtone went off on Isabella's phone. Unbeknown to her someone had changed his ringtone to something a little more… hilarious.

_I got passion in my pants and I ain't afraid to show it… I'm sexy and I know it._

Having realized that there was only one person that would texting her at this time of night, and that the ringtone had been changed, Isabella literally dove across the room for her phone. The sight of Isabella's mad dash for her phone, plus the changed ringtone had caused her to lose it, Addison began laughing.

After Isabella replied to the text message and Addison stopped laughing, Addison asked when did she start using that ringtone.

"I've never used that ringtone. Someone changed it when I wasn't looking." Isabella replied

"Uh huh, yeah, sure lets go with that." Addison poked. Isabella stuck her tongue out. "Hey, it's one of those boyfriend quiz things. Let's see what we get." Addison offered.

Isabella shrugged. "Sure why not?"

"Alright first question… Has your boy friend written you any kind of love notes?"

Isabella froze on the question. Her mind flew through the events of that day, most notable was the note that Phineas had written about his liking her. Yes, she was never meant to see it, but that didn't mean that she still wasn't affected by it.

"Umm, no, no he hasn't." Isabella finally answered.

"Alright, let's see here… do you guys stay round each other all the time?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Kay, does he ask to spend more time with you alone?"

"I'm sure they would." Isabella answered.

"They?" Addison questioned.

"I misspoke, I meant him." Isabella corrected. _Get it together; you just answered that question about your boyfriend and your former crush, who is in fact crushing on you. _

"Okayyy… does he feel jealous when you are around other guys?"

"Yeah, a little." Isabella answered.

"Really, I didn't know that about him." Addison added.

"Yeah, I know." _Dang it, Shapiro. That was something that Phineas wrote about him being slightly jealous of Dallas. This shouldn't be a problem._

"Alright, you see a hot guy walking by, what does your boyfriend do?"

"You know, I think that I'm done taking this quiz." Isabella stopped, picking up a few things to put them away.

"Oh come on Isabella, there's no big deal about this." Addison tried to convince her friend

"And besides what do these quizzes do to girls besides set super high expectations of what a boyfriend should be." Isabella continued.

"Now hold on for a bit…" Addison tried to stop Isabella.

"And it's not like a relationship is all about just those things on the quizzes. And…" Isabella was interrupted when a pillow hit her in the back of the head. Grabbing the back of her head, she turned and faced her friend, who was clutching another pillow in her hands.

"Now, calm down before I throw another. What has got you all up in a tizzy, Izzie?"

Isabella face palmed at her friends bad joke. "Tizzy, Izzie? Is that all you could think of?"

"I've been saving that one for a while now, but that's not the point. Answer my question, why are you freaking out?"

"I'm not freaking out. I have no idea what you're talking about." Isabella replied, giving an unnaturally toothy grin.

"I know that you're lying. You smile way too big when you do." Addison countered, folding her arms.

"How did you know that?"

"I have been your friend for how long now? I've kinda figured it out. But again, not the point. Answer my question."

Isabella bit her lip, tossing the idea back in forth in her head. She quickly made a decision when Addison moved to throw the pillow at her.

"Alright, alright. Listen I'm going to show you something, but you cannot, let me say it again, Can Not, tell anyone else about this."

"Alright I promise. Surely it can't be that bad." Addison replied.

Isabella found her jeans that she had been wearing that day and pulled out the note that had started all of this. Without a word, Isabella handed the note to her friend.

Addison eyed the note really not that impressed that a piece of paper was causing Isabella's problems. She took and unfolded the note. As she read more and more of the note, Addison went from being skeptic to more and more surprised.

"Whoa." Was all that Addison could say as she finished the note.

"I know right?" Isabella added.

"How did you even get this note?" Addison asked, folding the note back to its original state.

"Today when I was getting tutored. See he had that note around all day and since I didn't know what was on it, I wanted to get a look at it. So when Phineas and I dropped our papers, I saw it on the ground and took my chance. I shuffled it into a pile of my papers and I finally read it."

"Well, what are you going to do now?" Addison asked, handing the note back to Isabella.

"See I don't know. I mean everything is going well… great with Dallas, but you never really get completely over a crush, especially one that lasted as long as mine."

"You know what, don't worry about it. I'm sure that everything is gonna be just fine. And what's the worst thing that can happen? Phineas knows that you have this note?"

"Yeah, I guess." Isabella laughed with her friend, but she doubted that things would be that easy.

((**))((**))

The weekend had come to the Tri-State Area, and was an oddly warm day for that time of year. In fact it was considered the last warm day of the year. So what was the best thing to do on the last warm day of the year? Why go to the lake of course. And that's what the group decided to do.

It was quite worth going down to the lake. From the amount of laughing done, pictures taken, memories made, no one was forgetting that day for a long time. But the day had gone and the night had come. So to battle the dark and cold, the gang had made a bonfire and was enjoying the time together.

"Aww come on you guys. Can't you stay a little bit longer?" Dallas begged some of the others.

"We would but we can't. We have relatives coming over to the house tomorrow and we have to make sure that we are up and ready for them when they get there." Ferb and answered as he and Phineas were getting their things together.

"And why exactly are you leaving again?" Dallas asked his best friend.

"I need to take Katie home, remember?" Bryan answered.

"Are you guys sure that you can't stay a bit longer?" Isabella questioned.

"I'm sorry but we have to stay on our sleeping schedule. We don't want to fall behind during school." Ginger replied, Baljeet helping pack her things.

"Besides, I think you and Dallas always need more 'alone time'." Addison whispered into Isabella's ear.

Isabella took a swing at her friend before she left the group as well. Finally it had come down to just Dallas and Isabella together, alone.

Isabella shook against a cold breeze before she felt a towel get draped around her shoulders. She looked over as Dallas sat back down next to her.

Nothing was said for a while. Just the ripple of the lake next to the bank and the crackle of the fire were heard.

"I'm sorry."

"What?" Isabella was surprised.

"I feel like I haven't been around for like I should have, therefore I need to apologize."

"Oh, I know that you've been having some family trouble. Believe me, family comes first."

Dallas shrugged. "That still doesn't make me feel like I'm not there enough."

"Why would ever feel that way?"

Dallas played with the flame with a stick. "I just do. I'm not exactly a romantic guy. I mean I just enjoy being around you, I really don't care what I'm doing." Dallas looked up at his girlfriend. "I'm sorry if it sounds weird, or, or… obsessive, but that's what I feel."

The conversation stopped, and the awkwardness hung heavy in the air. Then Isabella moved over and sat right next to Dallas and leaned her head against his shoulder. Hesitantly, Dallas reached around and put and put his hand around her shoulder.

"Don't worry; let's just work on being together for a while. Don't want to do things too fast." Isabella replied.

The silence returned, but the awkwardness was gone. There were no thoughts of the note, of former or current problems; just the two teens together. There was calm, but the possibility of a storm was just on the horizon.


	4. Movie Night

The rest of the week went rather smoothly. Phineas and Ferb searched far and wide for the note that Phineas had written but could not find it anywhere. So the brothers wrote it up that it was lost forever. Isabella successfully kept any sort of inkling that she had the note from anyone. School came and went and before you knew it the weekend was back... well at least Friday night. And on this particular Friday, the gang enjoyed in their normal tradition of crashing at someone's house and watching a movie.

"I still can't believe that you all fit all of this inside of Candace's old room." Katie gawked at the Flynn-Fletcher theater room.

"Yeah, you can do quite a lot with a little gutting and some hydraulic lifts that extend the room by 10 feet." Phineas answered, carrying another big bowl of popcorn from the machine in the corner of the room to the teens that were piled amongst the couches and chairs in the room.

"I'm still surprised that your parents haven't said something about that." Buford added before taking a sip of his soft drink.

"They haven't said anything and until they do, we are just going to leave everything as is." Ferb replied over the roar of the blender, making a strawberry banana smoothie. (**A.N. Yes, they have blender. Don't question me**)

"So does everybody have everything that they will need?" Isabella asked the group.

"Yep we're good.' was the resounding answer, everyone holding up a drink, snack, pillow or blanket that they had."Good, so are you guys ready for ready for our choice?" the guys half-groaned, half mumbled, not really looking forward to some girly chick flick.

"We have chosen a Disney movie..." Addison announced, the boys groaning even louder. "Oh please, we could have picked 'Twilight.'" the boys immediately shut up, realizing that whatever was much better than that stupid 'vampire' movie. "So the movie is... The Little Mermaid!"

The guys mumbled but were not really up for arguing at this point. They had agreed to this decision making back when the first started movie night so they wouldn't spend hours arguing over one movie.

"So do you guys have the VHS, DVD, or is it like on Netflix or something?" Bryan asked

"I believe that the Flynn-Fletcher's have a copy of it somewhere."

Everyone turned as Phineas was browsing through the movie selections that the girls had chosen. Having found said movie, shoved it into the VCR, and turned the projector on. As the Disney castle lit up the screen, everyone settled down and began to enjoy the movie.

Everyone enjoyed the movie, singing along with the songs, laughing at the jokes that they didn't realize were there at a younger age. It was going great, well mostly great…

As Sebastian began singing "Kiss the Girl," the couples that were watching began to share a kiss here and there, even Dallas and Isabella shared one. But there was one person that didn't have a person to share a kiss with. What was even worse was the fact that he even saw the rest of his friends share a moment, including his crush. As the song finally ended, Phineas excused himself from the room, claiming the need to go to the bathroom.

As Phineas washed his hand, he also splashed some water on his face and looked at his reflection in the mirror.

_Calm down Flynn, there is nothing that happened that should have made that situation that awkward… Alright fine, it was completely awkward. You're pretty much the extra wheel cause everyone around you is in a relationship, and your crush is sharing a kiss or two with another friend of yours. Yeah, you're pretty much screwed. Things are going to be awkward, but you got to move on with it._

While Phineas was drying of his face and hands, his phone vibrated as he received a text.

**Ferb**

_Hey, everything ok? _

_ Yeah, Im fine_

_You sure? I'll talk if you need it.  
_

_ Maybe later… I'm fine, promise._

Phineas shoved the phone back into his pocket and returned to the room. Ferb looked at him with a suspicious look, but Phineas ignored it and sat back down and finished the rest of the movie with the group.

(*)(*)

Ferb walked next to Addison as he escorted her to her door as the gentleman he was. The night had ended rather boringly. The movie was over and everyone stayed and chatted for a bit, but then everyone just began to slowly head home. Having picked up Addison earlier than evening to bring her to the Flynn-Fletcher house, he had to bring her back home.

The couple stood in front of the doorway to talk for a little bit more.

"Thank you for bringing me home." Addison thanked.

"And you thought I was going to make you walk home or something like that?" Ferb asked.

"No, I just thought it would be nice to thank you."

"I know, I was just kidding." Ferb replied

"Is something bothering you? You're not acting like yourself?"

"Well something is slightly bothering me, but how could you tell?"

"Cause I'm a little flustered too. Care to tell what it is.?"

Ferb bit his lip. "Alright, I'll tell you but you can't tell anyone."

"I promise"

"It's about Phineas. You see about a week ago, he wrote this note saying that he liked Isabella. And then later that day he lost it. He kinda mellowed out after we couldn't find it, but then tonight during the movie, he left the room and I think it was something that had to do with all of the couples and the awkwardness of it all."

Addison just slowly nodded her head. "Alright, I guess that would be something to be worried about. Oh and Phineas didn't lose the note."

Ferb blinked in surprise. "What?"

"Phineas didn't lose the note. Isabella has it." Addison admitted.

The silence hung on the air as both parties let the information sink in for a bit.

"So Isabella has the note?" Ferb asked.

"Yep."

"So has she read it?"

"Yep, and so have I." Addison added.

"What did you think?"

"Personally, I'm not terribly surprised. But I think that it's a bit more surprising that he at least admitted it."

"Even if he was never going to actually tell her." Ferb finished.

"Yeah."

"So what do we do?"

"I think that we just sit back and watch. If there is ever a point that we need to help, then we'll help. Otherwise, we should probably stay out of it."

Ferb nodded in agreement. Ferb pulled Addison in close by her waist. "How did I get to be with such a smart girl like you?"

Addison smiled. "You got lucky."

Ferb sneered as the coupled kissed a bit more before parting for the evening.

Back at the Flynn-Fletcher home…

"So you are saying that just because you got all of those patches doesn't mean that stacked on top of each other?" Phineas asked.

"Yeah. Even if you got a patch multiple times, you only got credit for doing it once." Isabella answered.

"Then what about all of those 'Help Thy Neighbor' patches that you and the other girls got for all of those summers."

"I said they didn't stack. I didn't say that they didn't get counted. I don't think that there will be another troop that will ever get close to the record that we got."

"So where there any patches that you didn't get?" Phineas questioned.

"None that I wanted to get. I got every patch that I wanted to get."

"What was some that you didn't get?"

"Oddly there was one for stalking." Isabella shuddered.

"I bet Irving would have gotten a whole bunch of those." Phineas joked.

"Oh I bet. I'm so glad that he had to move away."

"What do you think he's doing right now?" Phineas asked.

"I don't even want to know." Isabella answered.

The night preceded like this, just a few friends, getting lost in conversation, forgetting the clock and the time that was passing. In fact they both ended up falling asleep, not ever finishing their conversation.

((**))((**))

The sun shone through the window blinds, lighting the theater room. Two teens lay asleep on a couch, blissfully sleeping a dreamless sleep. But the warmth of the sun worked its magic, awakening the red-headed teen. Blinking away the sleep form his eyes, he looked around and realized that he had fallen asleep in the extra room. Going to sit up, Phineas pushed up on his arms, but something surprised him on his ascent.

An extra weight was on his chest that he didn't know was there. Looking down, his face instantly turned red. During the night while the two were asleep, Isabella had ended up on Phineas, using his chest as a pillow. Unsure of what he was going to do, Phineas just slowly set back down, trying his best to not disturb the still sleeping Isabella.

He didn't have to wait much longer as Isabella slowly began to stir. Unsure of her reaction, Phineas feigned sleep, quickly laying his head back down and shutting his eyes.

Isabella did nearly the same as Phineas did when he awake. She blinked her eyes a few times and pushed herself up. But when she pushed up, she looked at where her hands were. In fact they were on top of Phineas' stomach. Isabella let out a quick squeak, embarrassed at their position. But unfortunately, her squeak woke up Phineas.

When Phineas opened his eyes, both teens simply stared at each other, knowing that the situation couldn't get much more awkward so they didn't say anything. Faces were read, eyes pleading for understanding, but nobody moved or made a sound until Linda called from downstairs.

"Boys, breakfast is ready."

Phineas and Isabella quickly sat up as they headed downstairs to the kitchen. Linda was finishing up some scrambled eggs as the teens walked into the room.

"Good morning Phineas. Oh, and good morning Isabella" Linda asked, surprised at the early morning guest.

"Sorry to be in the way Mrs. Fletcher." Isabella apologized. "I'll be heading home."

"Oh it's no trouble. Please stay and eat a little something. I'm guessing that your mum knew that you were over here, so I'm sure everything will be fine. Phineas would you get out another plate?"

Without saying anything, Phineas reached into the cabinet and pulled out another plate for Isabella. At the same time, Ferb came down the stairs, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Good morning Ferb." Linda greeted her step son.

"Mornin' mum. Morning Phin, Isabella." Ferb greeted.

Phineas and Isabella looked on as Ferb grabbed a plate and started dishing some eggs onto his plate. They were not shocked at the Brit but more at the fact that he had not so much as blinked an eyelash at the fact that Isabella was still there in the morning. Normally at any time, they would have expected him to be shocked, so they were surprised at his lack of response.

"Well are you two just gonna stand there? Come on and eat before it gets cold." Linda urged on.

Isabella and Phineas helped themselves to the breakfast that had been prepared, but they never said a word, never mind a glance at the other during the entire meal. After washing her dish and putting it away, Isabella thanked Linda and then quickly headed back across the street to her own home. Phineas quickly did the same, except going upstairs to his room instead of across the street.

(((***)))(((***)))

The Saturday was a lazy one, as people did random chores, some homework or even just watched TV. But Phineas could not focus on any project that he started out on that day. He was instead constantly thinking on what had transpired that morning. Phineas sat as his desk, trying to work on some random doodles, but was still tense, which makes it much easier to be surprised.

"You look a little tense." Ferb said loudly, just right behind the red-head's desk chair. Phineas lurched, his pencil flying in the air and landing on his desk. "I'm guessing that something is bothering you."

"Is it that obvious?" Phineas asked, not that surprised Ferb noticed.

"Kinda yeah, I'm also guessing that it also has something with you and Isabella sleeping together."

"You saw that?" Phineas responded, embarrassed that someone had seen that.

"Why else do you think I didn't make a scene this morning?" Ferb explained as he sat down on the bed.

"Well yeah that's what's bothering me." Phineas admitted.

"What happened? I want all the details." Ferb leaned in as much as he could.

Phineas was confused. "Nothing happened, what do you think we did?"

"I… nothing. So what happened?"

"I don't know what happened. I mean, last night me and Isabella were just talking…"

"About what?" Ferb interrupted.

Phineas shrugged. "Anything and everything. We were just having some fun talking and eventually we just fell asleep. All I can remember was curling up in a ball on one side of the couch and falling asleep and then waking up with Isabella sleeping on top of me."

Ferb tossed the information that he received back and forth in his head. "Well, if I may ask, what do you think when you woke up and realized what happened?"

Phineas rubbed his chin in thought. "Well, I was feeling rather flustered. I mean I never exactly woken up with a girl sleeping on top of me, let alone the girl that I have a crush on." Ferb nodded, urging Phineas to keep going. "And then I was just embarrassed cause I really didn't know what happened, and I just wanted to get out of it."

"But I doubt that's it." Ferb interrupted again.

Phineas sighed. "Why do you have to be right about everything?"

"I'm not, please continue."

"I guess, I mean, I don't know…" Phineas stopped and started.

"Out with it man!" Ferb urged on

"I was happy ok." Phineas finally admitted. He began to rub the back of his head in embarrassment. "I saw Isabella sleeping and even though she is still with Dallas, and that I probably shouldn't feel that way, but I was glad. I couldn't help but stay that way. Even though at the time I wanted to get out of that situation, I kinda wish that it could have lasted a bit longer." Phineas stopped and looked at his brother. "Is there something wrong with me? Is this normal?"

Ferb smiled and put a hand on his brother's shoulder. "It is very normal. You're acting normal, nothing's wrong with you. At least you're telling someone about this; better than keeping it to yourself. Now come on." Ferb stood up and Phineas followed suit.

"Where are we going?" Phineas asked.

"I'm treating you to trip to the arcade. I think it's time to have some fun."

About a block away…

Isabella was at Addison's house, as was her and Addison's normal Saturday meeting place. Isabella has also had some trouble forgetting the events of that morning and it also made her lose focus from time to time, which Addison took notice of.

"Girl, talk."

"What?" Isabella asked, surprised at the statement.

"You're not paying a lick of attention and you've been drawing random circles on that paper for the last 10 minutes." Isabella looked at her paper and sure enough, her paper was covered in circles of all sizes. "Something's bugging you."

"It's kinda embarrassing." Isabella admitted, but still trying to avoid answering to Addison.

"Oh please, it can't be much worse than that day 2 years ago." Addison reminded.

"We promised to never speak of that ever again." Isabella defended.

"But you get my point; nothing is going to surprise me enough after that day." Addison finished taking a sip of her drink.

"I slept with Phineas last night." Isabella admitted.

If ever there was a spit take done before, none compared to Addison's reaction to Isabella's confession. Addison spit out her drink and began coughing, all the while falling out of her chair.

"What?"Addison managed to get out before she started coughing a bit more.

"Last night, I stayed a little bit later and was just talking with Phineas, and when I woke up in the morning, I was sleeping on top of Phineas." Isabella explained.

"Ohhh, Isabella getting down last night."

"What? No! Nothing happened." Isabella defended.

Addison began laughing. "I doubt anything did happen. But in all seriousness, what did happen?"

"What did I just say? We were talking and we fell asleep on opposite ends of the couch and when I woke up, I was sleeping on top of Phineas."

"Well, what did you do?"

"Tried to not freak out. That was the most embarrassed I had been in my entire life." Isabella replied, covering her face in shame.

"But you liked it didn't you?"

"What?"

"I bet you liked 'sleeping with Phineas'." Addison teased.

"No. I couldn't. I mean, that doesn't meant that I couldn't… but I'm with Dallas… and that wouldn't be fair to him…" Isabella started to stutter.

"You liked it didn't you?" Addison asked, staring Isabella down.

There was a pause before Isabella answered. "Yes." She barely squeaked out.

"I knew it."

"Is there something wrong with the fact that I did like that, even though that he wasn't my boyfriend?"

Addison shrugged. "I don't know. It would probably be more out of the blue if it was someone else like Buford; but the fact that you had a crush on Phineas forever kind of makes it seem more feasible."

"What should I do?"

"Don't worry about it. Just keep it between us two and Phineas and nothing should happen. Just let this be a fluke thing. Everything will be fine."

Isabella nodded, but she seriously doubted that everything was going to be fine.


	5. Oh, Hamlet

The weekend proceeded rather quickly and the school week had quickly begun again. For Phineas and Isabella, they both still remembered what had happened that Saturday morning. Though try as they might, it hung over their heads from the start. When Isabella walked into her first period class and set down next to Phineas, all they could speak to each other was, "Hey," and "Good Morning." Except for Ferb and Addison, nobody noticed them acting strangely around each other. But to Ferb and Addison, the sight of the two acting like they had done something forbidden caused them laugh at every time the two did something out of the norm, much to Phineas and Isabella's chagrin. Even at lunch, Phineas stared at his lunch tray more than looking even at Isabella's direction. Isabella made sure that she was nearly unable to tell he was there.

But luckily for them, a new distraction was coming to take their mind off the weekend. Word was spreading throughout the school… the school's annual play sign ups had finally begun. Even more surprising to most was the choice of play.

"Hamlet, huh?" Addison thought aloud. She, Ferb, and Isabella had just finished their one class that they shared together, but had stopped to look at the large display that had been set up for the sign ups. Above the signup sheets displayed that year's production choice in large black print.

"It's a great choice for a play. It's full of drama, action, love…"Ferb was about to go on till he noticed that the two girls that he was with were just staring at him. "Sorry, I was about to ramble again wasn't I?" The girls nodded, and Ferb replied with a toothy grin. "Sorry."

"Anyway, are you two going to sign up for it?" Isabella asked.

"I'm going to see about being a stage hand or something." Ferb replied.

Addison shook her head. "I am far from a good actor. I'd much rather watch."

"Well, I guess I'm going to go ahead and sign up for a part.

"I wander if Phin knows about the play?" Ferb wondered aloud.

"Well, somebody text him." Addison commanded.

"Don't look at me. I had to leave my phone at home; battery died." Ferb replied.

"And I left mine in my locker." Addison added.

"I'll text him." Isabella finished.

Phin

Hey, u hear bout the play?

Did u read the 1st name on the list?

Isabella furrowed her eyebrows at his statement. Isabella looked at the signup sheet, and true to his word, there was Phineas' name, first on the list.

Ahh, sry bout that.

No prob

Isabella put her phone back in her pocket before plucking the pen that had been pinned to the wall. Placing her name on the next space, Isabella was looking forward to the play. _Something to look forward to._

(*)(*)

Besides the play, nothing terribly exciting happened, save Phineas coming down with some kind of sickness. From Wednesday through Friday, others had to collect notes and homework for the boy.

"And tell me again why I need to deliver all of his work?" Isabella asked the British brother, as they walked out of the school building.

"Cause, like I've said before, Candace and Jeremy has asked me to come for a visit. This in code means that they want a free babysitter for Amanda." Ferb replied.

"So why can't you drop everything off before hand?"

"Cause they asked me to be there early. Why is this such a big deal?" Ferb asked.

"Oh, no reason." Isabella replied, giving an abnormally large smile.

Ferb smirked. "It wouldn't have anything to do with you and Phineas 'hooking up' last Saturday, is it?"

"Ferb!" Isabella's cheeks turned red. "How do you know about that?"

Ferb raised an eyebrow and tilted his head. "Do I really need to answer that? And the answer is I saw you two earlier that morning before breakfast."

"But nothing happened, I swear!" Isabella defended.

Ferb chuckled. "I know that. Phineas wouldn't have done anything anyway."

Isabella's cheeks were still red. "You're not helping."

"Listen," Ferb turned to Isabella as he reached his car. "Phineas has tried his best to move on from that incident. You're going to make things more awkward than he is."

Isabella eyed Ferb. "Promise?"

"Promise."

Later that afternoon…

Isabella pressed the doorbell for the Flynn-Fletcher residence, careful not to drop the arm load of books that Phineas needed. A few moments later, Linda appeared at the front door.

"Oh, hello Isabella."

"Hello Mrs. Fletcher. I have Phineas' work." Isabella held up the large stack of books in her hands.

"Well, I'm sure he won't be happy to see it. But I think he will enjoy a visitor. He's up in his room if you want to go see him."

"Sure, that will be fine."Opening the door wider, Linda allowed Isabella into the house.

Isabella then made her way up the stairs and down the hallway to Phineas' room. The door to his room was slightly opened but Isabella knocked anyway. Her knocking on the door went unanswered so she pushed the door open a little wider. She then realized why her knock went unnoticed.

Phineas was sitting at his desk chair, headphones in his ears, staring at the ceiling while bobbing his head to the music. Isabella was about to come in till Phineas jumped up out of his seat and started singing out loud with the music.

"I got passion in my pants and I ain't afraid to show it... Phineas stood up out of his seat, and still thinking he was the only one in his room, ripped off his breakaway pants, revealing a pair of orange, triangle adorned boxer, "I'm sexy and I know it." Phineas began dancing along too, shaking his groove thing back and forth. Isabella nearly dropped all the books, her face turned red, shocked at the change in Phineas' apparel. But Phineas didn't even notice, or even care. He still was facing away from the door; having fun jamming to the music.

"Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, yeah." Phineas sang, matching the movements to the music video. Isabella couldn't help but laughing aloud, still Phineas didn't hear her, and just kept grooving. He did finally finish the song, and took a deep breath, happy that he was up and doing something.

"Man Phineas, I didn't know you had moves like that."

Phineas nearly jumped out of his skin, realizing someone had caught him acting like a fool, and of all people, it had to be her.

"Isabella!" Phineas yanked the headphones out of his ears, while turning to face the girl. "Wh-what are you doing here?" Phineas tried to say, his cheeks turning red. He immediately tried to cover himself, embarrassed beyond comprehension.

"I came by to bring your homework." Isabella replied, showing Phineas the load she was carrying.

"Uhh, can you step out of the room real quick?" Phineas asked.

"Uh, yeah," Isabella quickly backed out of the room back into the hallway. She could hear Phineas mumbling to himself as drawers were opened and closed. After a few moments, Phineas called Isabella back into the room.

Isabella returned, and saw Phineas had slid on a pair of black athletic shorts and was fixing the buttons on his breakaway pants while sitting on his bed.

"So, where do you want your books?" Isabella asked.

"Can you just set them on the desk, please?" Phineas answered. Isabella nodded at set the books down. Neither one was still able to understand what had just happened. "So, what happened this week? Anything interesting happen?"

"Oh, no. Has a substitute for English class yesterday, but other than that, it's been a normal week." Isabella responded.

"Cool, cool." Phineas didn't look up from his work on the buttons. He was still too embarrassed to really say much.

"Oh, I just remembered." Isabella reached in her letter carrier and put out a large, bound, stack of papers. "Mr. Williams gave out a script."

Phineas raised his head. "Oh cool, can I see?" Isabella handed Phineas the script as he began to thumb through the pages. "This is going to be a big production. Have you read through it yet?"

Isabella shook her head. "I got it as one of the last things before school was let out this afternoon."

Phineas closed the script and rubbed his chin in thought. "This would be good chance to get a real test of the 'Virtual Book Reader'…"

"Virtual Book reader?" Isabella questioned.

"Yeah," Phineas stood up and walked over to the bookshelf, picking up a set of normal looking helmets that were on the floor next to it. "Ferb and I have been working on this for a little while now. It literally sends you into your book of choice, so you can be watching from a third person view or actually be a character in the book."

"That sounds really cool." Isabella commented, taking a helmet from Phineas. "So what do we need to do?"

"First, let me punch in the specifics into the computer… and just put the helmet on." Phineas put on his set of goggles, and Isabella followed suit.

To her amazement, they had indeed appeared to have been transported into the play. She could hear the footsteps of sentinels passing by, see through the darkness of the night and yet was completely aware of her surroundings.

"This is… wow." Was all Isabella could get out.

"I know right. And I personally think that you look rather nice as well." Phineas commented.

Prompted by Phineas statement, she looked down at her outfit. To her surprise, she found that she was not wearing her normal pink, long sleeve t-shirt and jeans, but was now instead wearing a long, pink gown, tied at the waist with a white and gold cloth. Her hair had been wrapped in a pair of buns on the sides of her head. A gold bun catcher wrapped around her head with a white train flowing on the back of her head.

She glanced over at Phineas, and giggled at his look. His dark blue jacket was trimmed all around in bright silver. He even had the lacey frills coming out of his sleeves and around his neck. His trousers were poofed out around his thighs and stopped right above the knees. And where his trousers stopped, dark blue tights continued down to his feet. Phineas looked over his outfit, and was not as impressed as at Isabella's.

"Not my first choice of clothing, but it fits the theme."

"Where are we?" Isabella wondered.

"We are in the beginning of the play. Just over there, the guards are about to change, which starts the entire thing." And as Phineas motioned, it happened.

"So do we have to do anything or can we just stand and watch?"

"It's whatever you want. I personally have only heard what Ferb has told me about Hamlet; so I'm going to use this experience to see what character I might try out for."

Isabella shrugged. "I guess you're right."

Phineas offered his elbow as the scene began to move on to a different area. "Shall we follow?" Isabella smiled and took Phineas elbow, and they both walked along with the play.

For hours, the teens watched as the tragedy unfurled in front of them. At some points, they replaced themselves as the characters, to practice and see if they liked the part. But they didn't just use the play. Isabella asked to try and go inside a Dr. Seuss book, and so they did. They did try the green eggs and ham, and they do like green eggs and ham; yes they do, Sam I am.

Finished with their story, Phineas and Isabella removed their helmets, laughing at the fun they just had.

"Wow, this is so cool. This was really fun." Isabella said, handing the helmet back to Phineas.

"I think so too. Hey what time is it?" Phineas asked.

Isabella looked over at the clock and was shocked to realize what time it was. "Its eight thirty."

Phineas was surprised. "Wow, I guess time really does fly when you're having fun."

Isabella stood up out of the chair she was in to stretch, and when she did, her stomached rumbled. It was even loud enough that Phineas turned at looked at her stomach. "I guess that I haven't eaten in a while."

Phineas' stomach growled in the same way as Isabella's. "Yeah, me either. Hey, I know of this new smoothie place only a little ways from here. Want to go get something?"

"Sure, fine with me."

Phineas grabbed his car keys, threw on a jacket, and both the teens went off to "Smoothie Sumo". Both the "Bonsai Banana smoothie" and the "Rising Sun Raspberry smoothie" were one of the many flavors that were there to choose, but those are what Phineas and Isabella choose. And not being one to sit in a restaurant, Phineas drove a couple of blocks farther down the road to the Danville Park. For the time they were walking, they chatted and sipped, walking along the paths of the local block.

Phineas still a bit tired from being sick, saw his favorite spot in the entire park, and asked if it was okay with Isabella if they went there; which Isabella was completely fine with. Making their way over to the largest tree that was next to the Danville pond, the two leaned up against the tree and sat down. The moon and a few faint stairs reflected of the pond while shining down on the teens. Like before, small talk and drinking of smoothies filled their time together.

As the time passed, Phineas couldn't help but keep looking at Isabella. To him, the moonlight made her face glow, quite a sight to behold. And that wasn't even the best part. He was really past caring about what Isabella looked like. It mattered what she was as a person, friend, all of that; it was much more important than what she looked like. The time that he was getting to spend with just her made his heart pound. Every once in a while, Phineas got caught staring at Isabella too long, and when she turned her head towards him, he had to quickly turn, his cheeks turning a little red.

Phineas wasn't the only one feeling different on this night. Isabella was in fact immensely enjoying the time she was spending with Phineas. She was even more surprised that when she mentioned being a little cold, Phineas almost immediately took of his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. She did notice that Phineas was often staring at her and when she would turn to look, she would catch him smiling before he would turn away to look at the pond.

Not that she minded much. Oddly enough things felt good, safe, right. She was immensely enjoying herself. She found herself in a place that she hadn't felt in a long time... Phineas' land. She was falling again and she couldn't help but want to be near, to feel, to kiss...

Phineas could hear Isabella move and when he turned to look; she was approaching closely to his face. He didn't understand till she was right next to his face. He could see her eyes shut and he let his close as well. He could feel her close to him.

Their lips were a mere inch from each other. Phineas could taste Isabella's breath that was giving off a hit of the raspberry smoothie. He could feel his heart pounding faster, but something was bothering.

Isabella finally committed. She was going to kiss Phineas, but before she could Phineas put his hands on her shoulders.

"Wait"

"Wh-what's wrong?"

"We just need to stop."

"Is it something I did?"

"No, no; it's just. This has been fun, amazing just to spend time with you it's just... I don't want to do something that we will regret."

"Oh, you mean like... Things?"

"What? No. I mean, I don't want to come between you and your boyfriend."

The light bulb went off in her head. She realized that she was still pretty much right on top of Phineas, so she slid back to her spot where she had been sitting. "I I'm sorry. It's just that..."

"No. I'm the one that's sorry." Phineas apologized.

The two sat still, only the cars on the street passing by interrupting the silence.

Phineas stood up and offered his hand to Isabella. "I think it's time to go home."

Isabella nodded, taking Phineas' hand as he helped her up. The walk back to the car was quiet, the cracks on the pavement more interesting than looking at the other. The same with the car ride back to Phineas' house; Isabella staring window while Phineas drove. If it wasn't for the fact that Isabella left her bag when they went to go get smoothies, she would have been glad to go straight home.

While she went to the room, Phineas just stood by the door, going to be polite and see her out. As she came back down, Isabella stopped and started rummaging through her bag.

"I think that this is something that belongs to you." Isabella pulled out a folded, crumpled note. It took Phineas a second, but as soon as he read the first few words on the page, he realized what it was.

"This is the..."

"Yeah." she confirmed for him

"So have you?"

"Yeah" Isabella admitted.

Phineas took a moment to think, but he didn't know what to say.

"I'm just gonna go." Isabella said, letting herself out the door. Phineas managed to get out a good bye before the door closed. Isabella walked to her home, up the stairs and shut the door before falling against it. She sighed and covered her face with her hands.

"What have I done... What am I going to do?"


	6. Let's Talk

Isabella stared into the soupy mess that was her chocolate milkshake. She had gone to Joe's to get out of the house, but she found that her appétit still hadn't returned. It had still been almost an entire day since she nearly kissed Phineas, but the guilt was still hanging over her head.

A spoon smacking the counter in front of her snapped her out of her stupor. She shook her head and looked at the chef.

"If I didn't know any better I would say that there is something wrong with the milkshake. But I do know better, considering I am the best milkshaker at this joint."

Isabella smiled. "You never seem to run out of modesty."

"Never. Now, what is it that is bugging you, not that it's any of my business." Bryan asked.

"I doubt that you want to hear about my boy troubles." Isabella replied, taking a sip of the milkshake.

Bryan's eyebrows furrowed. "What did Dallas do?"

"Nothing… something… I don't know." Isabella sighed. "You're Dallas' best friend, is that still correct?"

Bryan puffed out his chest. "The one and only."

"You talk about your girlfriends, don't you?"

Do girls talk about their boyfriends?"

"Yes, it's like second nature." Isabella admitted.

"Then yes, yes we do."

"So… what does Dallas think about me?" Isabella asked, stirring her milkshake with the straw.

Bryan leaned against the counter. "Well, clearly he thinks you're something special. He is dating you after all."

"But he's not very good at showing it."

"Well what were you expecting? No guy is good at expressing his feelings."

"What about Ferb?"

"What about him?"

"He's good at sharing his feelings."

"Uh huh, think about really quick. Give me some examples." Dallas challenged.

Isabella took a second to think "Well there was the time that…, oh wait, Addison told me that it was difficult for him to do that; or how about the time that… oh yeah that too."

"My point exactly."

"Well, switching topics slightly, does Dallas get jealous?"

Bryan shrugged. "I haven't known him to get that way. But I will admit that we all have at some level."

"So he hasn't?" Isabella asked.

"Not so far as I could tell."

Isabella groaned. "Why is this so difficult?"

"What's so difficult?"

"Relationships."

Bryan rolled his eyes. "Look at me." Isabella looked up at Bryan. "At the center of any good relationship, things have to be simple. If it seems hard, it may be because you're making it that way."

Isabella thought about it for a moment. "So you think I'm making a bigger deal out of this than what it is?"

"Seems that way to me. Let me ask this, have you talked to Dallas about these concerns, feelings, whatever you want to call it?"

"Uh…"

Bryan smirked. "I thought so."

"But…" Isabella tried to protest.

"You really should.

"You really think so?"

"Yes. Go. Do it. Now."

"He's at work." Isabella pointed out. "And are you trying to get rid of me?"

"I do have other responsibilities you know." Isabella looked around the restaurant. There was nobody else in the restaurant besides two older gentlemen and they had already been served. "Okay, clearly that's a lie. But you still should do it."

Isabella sighed. She took the milkshake and chugged as much as she could in one go; welcoming the coming brain freeze more than what Bryan suggested.

(*)(*)

Phineas browsed the local market at a later hour than normal. Linda had sent him out to get a gallon of milk, and because he was still confused about what had happened the day before, he was spending as much time as he could away from the house. Phineas looked at the rows of movie theater candy and picked up a bag of Twizzlers, but then he remembered that they were in fact one of her favorite candies. Phineas sighed and set the bag back on the shelf.

"I prefer Raisinettes myself." A friendly voice said.

Phineas turned and met his companion. "Hey Dallas. What are you doing here?"

Dallas reached into the box he was carrying and placed a few bags on the shelf. "I work here on the weekends."

"Ah, I didn't know that."

"Yep, just a little something to keep my bank account happy. But anyway, may I ask what you're doing here at this later hour?"

Phineas held up the milk jug in his hand. "My mom sent me on a little errand. So I'm just wasting some time."

"Cool stuff. Hey, if you don't mind, but you look like you need to talk to someone."

Phineas was a little surprised. "Uhh, yeah, I kinda do."

"I got some time if that's fine with you."

"Yeah, sure." Dallas motioned for Phineas to follow him. Phineas was then lead through an employee's only door, and into a separate room. The plaque on the propped open door said "Employee Lounge" as Dallas led Phineas inside. A couple of round tables had been set up in the corner of the room, where Phineas went and sat down while Dallas rummaged around in the employee fridge. Phineas looked around the room till Dallas returned with a couple of drinks in his hand.

"You like the blue Monster's still?" Dallas asked.

Phineas nodded his head. Dallas slid the can across the table, Phineas' favorite drink ending up right in front of the red head.

"Where did you get these drinks?" Phineas asked, popping the tab off his drink.

"My dad knows a guy in the company. Every once in a while they will offer my dad an extra case or two." Dallas replied as he took a seat across from Phineas, opening his Khaos Monster drink. Phineas shrugged and both took a swig of their drinks.

"So, what is it that plagues you, my friend?"

"I guess that you would say that I'm having some girl problems."

"Well what seems to be the problem?"

"First off, she is already in a relationship." Phineas started.

"That is a problem."

"But we are all already good friends."

"An even bigger problem..."

"And I really don't want to come between them. They seem really happy together." Phineas added

Dallas took a sip of his drink. "So what's the big dilemma?"

"She… already knows that I like her." Phineas admitted.

"Ehhh... yikes."

"My thoughts exactly." Phineas leaned back in his chair.

"Well I guess it really depends on her. Does she seem to return your feelings?" Dallas questioned.

"Once."

Dallas raised an eyebrow. "Once?"

"Yeah."

Dallas was intrigued. "Well, what happened?"

Phineas slid the can back and forth between his hands before answering. "She tried to kiss me..."

Dallas whistled. "Oh yeah, that's a pretty clear sign."

"I mean nothing happened," Phineas defended. "But now I don't know what to do."

Dallas took a drink of his Monster, giving himself some time to think. "That's a tough one. I'd say do what you know will make her happy."

"But what about the other guy?" Phineas asked.

Dallas shrugged. "I have no idea. If you care about her, let her be happy."

"Even if that means one of us might get hurt…"

"Yeah."

Phineas sighed. "This is gonna be a win/lose for somebody."

"It always is."

"This bites."

"It will all work out for the best." Dallas encouraged.

"You think so?"

"Trust me, the universe has a way of making things happen how they need to."

Phineas leaned his chin on his hand. "I guess I need to do something."

"Then why are you still talking to me?" Dallas questioned.

"Wha?" Phineas was confused.

"Go. You need to talk to this girl." Phineas was still confused. "Go on, get outta here."

"You're saying going to talk to her now?"

"Did I stutter? Yes, that's what I meant."

Phineas shrugged and stood up. Dallas stood up as well. "And hey, good luck." Dallas offered up a toast, which Phineas returned. Downing the last few drops of their drinks, the friends went their separate ways, Phineas feeling even worse than before.

((**))((**))

Dallas popped open another Monster drink, while he was sitting in Bryan's desk chair. The two best friends had a habit of staying up late on Saturday nights and playing video games, cards, anything just to occupy some time; and tonight was no different.

Like it often did with Bryan and Dallas' conversations, the topic had turned toward girls and all the things involved with talking about girls.

"So, you're telling me that I need to think of it like baseball?" Dallas questioned.

"Exactly like baseball." Bryan reiterated.

"So first is just like making out?"

"Yeah."

"And second is a bit more… touchy feely?"

"Yes, second is a trip to the typically gated community of Boobtown."

Dallas blinked a couple of times. "Well, that's one way to put it… and why are you not telling me the other two?"

"You're not ready for it."

"Fine, whatever."

"And now that it's been brought up, the question is where are you?" Bryan asked.

"Oh barely on first… but I'm okay with that."

"That seems suspect."

"That I'm okay with where we are at?"

"Yeah. I personally always thought of Isabella as a bit wild."

Dallas eyes widened. "Bryan! Really?"

"Yeah, really."

"Well sorry to disappoint you, but she is not that 'wild'."

Bryan shrugged. "Ah okay, but see you're not fine with it."

Dallas rolled his eyes. "Oh please…"

"You really are aren't you?" Bryan questioned.

Dallas was quite for a few moments. "No…"

"Stop lying." Bryan interrupted.

"Fine, maybe just a little." Dallas admitted.

"A little?"

"Yeah, just a little." Dallas took a drink of his Monster.

"So what are you going to do about it?"

Dallas shrugged. "I don't know, I mean she seems happy."

"But are you?" Bryan questioned.

"Oh yeah…, well I think so; I just wish I did more for her."

"Like what?"

Dallas took another drink. "I don't know. In my mind there is nothing that I can do that can beat the first date."

Bryan's eyebrows furrowed in thought. "What the uh… one at the fair?"

"Yeah."

"Remind me again of what happened."

"Well, there wasn't a lot to remember, but there was one spot I can't forget. We had lucked up and had gotten a ride of the Ferris wheel that they had right around sunset. We went around real slowly and when we got up to the top, I looked over at Isabella. What I saw was just the most beautiful girl I had ever laid my eyes on. The light made her give off a little shine with a nice sparkle in her eyes. I must have had my mouth open cause she saw me staring and asked if something was wrong. I told her that she looked beautiful and I could see her cheeks turn a red, but she was smiling. I asked if she was having a good time, which she replied yes. I took her hand and gave her a quick peck on the back. She though leaned over and gave me a small kiss on the lips. I was surprised and I could feel my cheeks get hot. She gave a little giggled and then leaned on my shoulder. That… that moment I will never forget."

Dallas finished his little tale and the two friends just sat quietly for a few moments.

"Yeah, I guess that is pretty hard to beat." Bryan finally said, breaking the silence.

"But I guess that the main point is I'm happy, right?"

Bryan shrugged. "I guess that is the most important part."

(((***)))(((***)))

Phineas pushed open the front door of his house with his free hand, carrying the two bags of supplies that his mother needed in his other hand. Phineas closed the door and headed to the kitchen, where his mother was waiting.

"Oh there you are Phineas. Do you find everything?"

"Yes," Phineas replied quietly, setting the bags on the counter.

"Thanks for getting everything. I couldn't think of what I would do if I didn't have this done for the potluck tomorrow."

"Yeah," Phineas barely got out. Phineas left the ingredients that he knew his mom would need on the counter and put the rest away without saying a word. Phineas finished his work and went up to his room. As he did, Ferb slid in through the back door, shutting the door behind him.

"Hey hon."

"Hey mom, what smells good?"

"Just what I'm fixing for the potluck."

"Awesome, I hope some will still be there for me to get."

"Hey, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, what's the problem?"

"Oh, nothing really. It's just, when your brother came in; he seemed kind of… not himself. Like something was bothering him. Do you know what it might be?" Linda questioned.

Ferb thought for a second. "No, not that I can think of."

"Oh ok, if you could, can you go at least make sure he's ok?"

"Sure thing." Ferb gave his mother a hug.

"Thanks."

Ferb went out of the kitchen and up the stairs to the still shared bed-room, where the door was closed. Ferb knocked a few times before walking in. Phineas was staring at the ceiling, listening to some music on his IPod.

"Hey." Ferb started.

"Hey." Phineas replied.

"Mom says you looked a bit upset. You know anything about that?" Ferb asked, leaning against the door frame.

"I'm not feeling all that… happy." Phineas said, still staring at the ceiling.

"So do you want to talk about it?"

"Maybe later, but not right now."

"Is there anything that you need?"

"Nah, just some time to think."

"Alright, just… don't be afraid to talk. We all want to help."

Phineas turned so he could see his brother. "Thanks bro."

Ferb nodded and closed the door behind him. Phineas reached over to his IPod and pushed the shuffle button, hoping that some song would help make him feel better.

_L is for the way you look at me. O is for the only-_

Phineas pushed the fast forward button, switching the song from a lovely dovey song.

_Lyin' here with you so close to me_

_It's hard to fight these feelings when-_

Phineas changed the song again, fate being somewhat cruel.

_I've been a walking heartache  
_

_I've made a mess of me_

Phineas turned the music off and groaned in frustration. Phineas looked around the room and wish something could take his mind off his predicament. Phineas decided to go to his last ditch thing that always made him feel better.

Reaching to the lowest shelf of his bedside cabinet, Phineas pulled out a small box. He had made this little set up a few years after that first amazing summer. Phineas pushed the first button, and he started floating a foot or two off of his bed. Underneath his bed, he had modified the original plans for the "Anti- Gravity Fun Launcher" to fit underneath his bed. He then pushed the next button, and the entire room went black; but slowly small dots began to appear all around the room. More and more dots began to appear and then above his head on the ceiling until the entire room was lit by the stars. A few seconds later, the picture changed, a picture of the 'God eye nebula' appeared and a few seconds later, a picture of the crab nebula flashing on the ceiling. As a final piece of his plan, he reached for his IPod and switched to one of his favorite songs.

**(A.N. : If you would like to see and hear what Phineas is, please copy the link here: watch?v=g_4n8HWF9ng&feature=plcp) **

As the music began, Phineas leaned back, allowing his body to float softly in the air, staring at the changing stars.

_I need another story,_

_Something to get off my chest_

_My life gets kinda boring_

_Need something that I can confess_

_'Till all my sleeves are stained red_

_From all the truth that I've said_

_Come by it honestly _

_I swear_ _Thought you saw me wink, _

_No_ _I've been on the brink, so_

_Tell me what you want to hear_

_Something that were like those years_

_I'm sick of all the insincere_

_So I'm gonna give all my secrets away_

_This time_

_Don't need another perfect line_

_Don't care if critics ever jump in line_

_I'm gonna give all my secrets away_

Phineas allowed himself to think on why he was feeling so blue. It was really his secret, his feelings for Isabella that was making him sad. No, the fact that he had the feelings wasn't the problem. It was the fact that the one person that he never wanted to know how found out.

_My God_ _Amazing that we got this far_

_It's like we're chasing all those stars_

_Who's driving shiny big black cars_

_And every day I see the news, all the problems that we could solve_

_And when a situation rises, just write it into an album_

_Seen it straight to go_ _I don't really like my flow, no, so_

_Tell me what you want to hear _

_Something that were like those years _

_I'm sick of all the insincere _

_So I'm gonna give all my secrets away  
This time don't need another perfect line _

_Don't care if critics ever jump in line _

_I'm gonna give all my secrets away_

Yes, he cared for Isabella, a lot really. And he was good friends with Dallas. The farthest thing that he wanted to was get in between them. And after what had happened yesterday, it seemed like he done what he didn't want to do.

_Oh, got no reason, got not shame_

_Got no family I can blame_

_Just don't let me disappear_

_I'mma tell you everything_

Phineas sighed. He knew that he needed to make the first move, and he decided what he needed to say. It wasn't going to be his favorite thing in the world, but he felt that it was for the best.

_So tell me what you want to hear _

_Something that were like those years _

_I'm sick of all the insincere _

_So I'm gonna give all my secrets away  
_

_This time don't need another perfect line _

_Don't care if critics ever jump in line _

_I'm gonna give all my secrets away  
_

_So tell me what you want to hear _

_Something that were like those years _

_Sick of all the insincere _

_So I'm gonna give all my secrets away  
_

_This time don't need another perfect line _

_Don't care if critics ever jump in line _

_I'm gonna give all my secrets away  
_

As the last few lines of the song began to play, Phineas turned off the anti gravity machine and floated softly down to his bed. Sighing again, he got up and grabbed his notebook and a pen. When he really needed to think, he always wrote down his thoughts in his notebook; just like he did for the original note. He wanted to make sure the words that he used were carefully chosen, and this was his way of doing it.

_All my secrets away_

_All my secrets away_

* * *

_Song lyrics used in this chapter:_

"_L-O-V-E" by Nat King Cole_

"_Just a Kiss" by Lady Antebellum_

"_God Gave Me You" by Blake Shelton_

"_Secrets" by One Republic_

**I do not own any songs, products, and all but one character used in this story.**


	7. Ch Ch Changes

Phineas played with his thumbs, rather uninterested in his surroundings. The entire street had been invited to Buford's house to watch the big game for the professional football team, the Danville Destroyers, on the TV and just hang out and such. The Flynn-Fletcher family accepted the invitation. Phineas had been excited about the get together, making sure that he was going to have his jersey ready to wear today, but after what had happened two days earlier, he had suddenly feared possibly being around her. She and her mom hadn't shown up and neither had her boyfriend, but he was kind of hoping that neither one of them came.

The doorbell rang and Phineas perked up, trying to hear who it was. Buford's mom opened the door.

"Hey guys, so glad that you're here."

"Oh no, thank you so much for inviting us." Vivian replied.

"Oh, and is that Matzo burritos I smell?"

"Si, si. Isabella made them herself."

"Is that true?"

"Yes ma'am. But I needed a little help." Isabella answered.

Phineas leaned back into the deep cushions of the couch. She had shown up, and she was there, but he decided that he was going to go through with his plan.

Phineas stared at the television, listening to the welcomes of the other partiers greeting Vivian and Isabella. He could tell that they were slowly making their way toward where he was.

"Oh Phineas, there you are!" Vivian announced.

Phineas turned in his seat to look at Vivian.

"Hello Mrs. Garcia-Shapiro."

"I saw your mom but I didn't see you here."

Phineas shrugged. "Just been sitting here."

"Do you know where everyone else is?"

"I'm guessing either out in the backyard watching or participating in a game of football."

"Oh alright." Vivian smiled and headed to the back door. As she moved, her daughter was standing still, looking behind Phineas.

As the two teens looked at each other, both looked away, Isabella at the floor and Phineas at the back of the couch."

"Hey," Isabella started.

"Hey," Phineas replied.

"So why aren't you out back playing?"

"I wasn't feeling very well."

"Oh, okay."

Both stared off silently as the sound of people talking and laughing became the noise to block the complete silence. Isabella eventually sat sown on the opposite side of the couch, watching the pregame programming, but the awkward feeling between her and Phineas never left.

Even as the backyard football game ended and everyone started eating, Phineas and Isabella never spoke a word to each other, avoiding eye contact like it was some kind of disease. It didn't matter there was some other people there to talk to, or the fact that neither one of them had to be in the same room as each other. The cloud that hung over the two of them like a thunderstorm. Even the major football fan that Phineas was couldn't completely distract him from the girl that liked was just across the room.

At halftime, almost everyone had left their sets, either needing to use the restroom or to get more to eat. Isabella noticed Phineas shooting out of his seat and head for the kitchen. A few moments later she could hear the front door open and close. A few seconds later her phone vibrated.

_Message: Phin_

_ Please meet me out front._

Isabella stood up slowly and stretched. Picking up her plate, she walked to the kitchen and threw it away before trying to sneak out the front door without many people noticing. Opening the door, Phineas spun around quickly to face Isabella. Shutting the door behind her, neither one said anything for a few moments.

"Phineas, I-"

"Please stop." Phineas interrupted.

Isabella was surprised, but she stopped and allowed Phineas to continue.

"This thing between us had got to stop." Isabella stayed quiet but nodded in agreement. "Since you… read the note that… I wrote, "Phineas struggled to get out, trying to choose his words carefully, "you know that I like you; and I'm guessing after what… nearly happened the other day… you like me too."

Phineas looked at Isabella, waiting for a response. Isabella just nodded in agreement.

"But you still like Dallas too…" Isabella nodded again.

Phineas took a deep breath before he spoke again. "Alright, then it's settled." Isabella gave a quizzical look at the red head. "It isn't fair to you to have to chose, nor is it fair for me to undermine your relationship with Dallas. So… I'm going to back off/"

"Back off?" Isabella asked.

"I'm going to distance between myself from you." Phineas explained.

"But why?"

"I can't help but feel like that the more I stay around and the longer that this goes on that I'm going to do what I never wanted to do, which was to harm anybody that I care about… especially you."

Isabella sighed. "There's probably is no way for me to change your mind, is there?"

Phineas shook his head. "Not really."

"Alright, I'll go along with this."

"You do know that if someone asks, you gotta keep this between us."

Isabella folded her arms across her chest. "As long as you understand that I'm not a big fan of this."

Phineas looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry. I just can't think of anything else that might work… but we are still friends right?"

Isabella gave a small smile and gave Phineas a quick hug. "Of course."

(*)(*)

A week had passed. Phineas was sitting in his room like he had every day that past week. It was him keeping to the "stay away from Isabella" plan that he had created. No matter what it was, from going to Uncle Joe's almost every day, going bowling on Wednesday night, to not even going to the high schools home football game. The only two people that knew the reason why was Phineas and Isabella, but that had not stopped the entire group of friends to notice that something was up and frankly, it kinda worried all of them.

Ferb had have enough of it, and barged into the bed room, looking for Phineas.

"Alright what's up with you?"

"What?" Phineas turned in his desk chair to face Ferb.

"You've been avoiding the rest of us all week."

"You're crazy" Phineas tried to deter Ferb from going on.

"Really… everyone has been asking about you all week."

Phineas mentally scolded himself. He wanted to not make it that obvious that he wasn't coming to all the normal stuff.

"Well, if everyone asks again, I'm fine."

"And you expect me to believe that?" Ferb crossed his arms in frustration.

"Yeah, I kinda do."

"I know you better than that."

"Oh do you now;" Phineas replied rather smartly, "so then brother of mine tell me what is wrong with me?"

Ferb shrugged. "I don't know; that's why I'm asking."

Phineas turned around back toward his desk. "Then if you don't know, you don't need to worry."

Ferb was beyond pissed. Ferb stomped across the room and turned the rotating chair so that Phineas was back facing him.

"Look you difficult butt hole, I'm sick of running around this stupid maze that you have set up. Either you start talking, or you will keep hurting everyone around you. Whether you like it or not, I'm trying to bloody help so please, tell me what is going on."

Phineas sighed. "Look, it's just… has to be this way for a while… until things happen."

"What kind of things?" Ferb pressed.

"Just things… I don't even have any real control over it all."

"Then why the heck are you making such a big deal out of it?"

Phineas opened his mouth and then shut it, trying to think of a good response. Ferb just waited for Phineas to answer, not moving his stare.

"I don't know… I just got to do this."

Ferb threw his hands in the air. "Fine, whatever. If you don't want to talk about it, fine. As long as you know that things are not the ok; you got to change something, I hope you can figure that out." Ferb stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Phineas groaned turning and slamming his head into his desk. "Things are not going according to plan."

((**))((**))

The next day, Addison was writing some answers to her homework questions, waiting for Isabella to show up so they could work on their project for the month. Hearing a knock at the door, Addison yelled for the person to come in. Isabella quickly came in, and groaned in frustration.

"What is it?" Addison asked.

"Dallas is smothering me." Isabella responded.

"Alright, what?" Addison was confused.

Isabella took the letter carrier off her shoulder and hung it on the back of a chair. "About this time last week, Dallas started acting… clingy."

"Clingy?"

"Like whenever I'm around with him, he started constantly like wanting to give me hugs and started holding my hand all the time."

"Well most boyfriends do like to be that way with their girlfriends."

"I know that, but its excessive and rather all of sudden. Like I was walking down the hall to class and he wanted to hold my hand for the next ten feet to the door, and he had never wanted to do that before until recently. And like the other night he took me to the movies, he was leaning as close as possible as he could, wrapping his arm around me, trying to pull me in as tight as he could to him."

"Alright, so besides the rather suddenness of it and the rather lack of some control that he seems to be having, what is the real problem?" Addison questioned.

"It's just too much, too quick. I mean I like the guy but he's just all of a sudden smothering me and I don't know how to tell him to back off. I mean I don't even know why he even started." Isabella finished and flopped on the couch dejectedly.

"Man sounds like you're in a tough bind. Weird though that it started when Phineas started acting weird."

Isabella dropped a book that she pulled out of her backpack. Isabella picked up the book. "What?"

"Yeah, haven't you noticed that like for the past week that Phineas has been avoiding nearly everyone like it was his job?

"Huh, guess I never noticed." Isabella forced out the lie.

Addison shrugged. "Ah, well now you're updated. I guess that since you didn't notice it that you don't know why he is acting like that?"

"No, nothing at all." Isabella forced another lie.

"Alright, so what did the teacher say had to be in the project?" Addison asked.

Isabella and Addison began working on their project, but Isabella was still disturbed. She assumed that everyone noticed that Phineas had been acting weird; and was not completely happy that she was in fact the cause of it all.

(((***)))(((***)))

"So you take that answer…" Bryan instructed Dallas over Skype.

"Alright…"

"And then add that to the first part and that's your total." Bryan finished his mini lecture.

"Alright, well that pretty much covers that." Dallas closed his notebook.

"So does that answer your question?"

"Yeah, I can get the rest from there."

"So now, I have a question for you." Bryan started, adjusting his head mic.

"Yeah sure, what's up?"

"Are you and Isabella okay?" Bryan asked rather quickly.

"Yeah, I think so. Why do you ask?" Dallas relied.

"I don't know. It just seems like when I've seen you guys together, you've been kinda… possessive."

"Ah nah, I was just acting like a normal boyfriend should act."

"Well you weren't like that way before." Bryan pointed out.

"I… just thought I should show my affection more." Dallas defended.

"Why? If everything was fine before…"

"I just thought a change was needed." Dallas interrupted.

"What made you think that?"

"Just… I noticed something."

"Which was?" Bryan pressed.

"I noticed… I noticed how much time Isabella was spending with Phineas." Dallas admitted.

Bryan raised an eyebrow. "But it wasn't a big deal before."

"No, no it wasn't."

"So why do something now?"

"I think I need to show how much she means to me." Dallas answered.

"I mean I understand the feeling; just not the suddenness of it all." Bryan was trying to follow Dallas' reasons.

"I don't know why I'm having to explain my reasoning to you."

"Because I'm your friend. It just seems this could end badly for you."

"Thank you for your concern but your concern is not needed." Dallas waved off Bryan's worry.

"Well if you're sure-"

"And I am…" Dallas interrupted.

"You don't sound sure." Bryan pointed out.

"Quite sure actually. I would just hate for someone to get in the middle of us. It wouldn't be pretty."

Bryan raised an eyebrow and was completely confused. "Now pretty how?"

"It's not important."

"Alright…"

((((****))))((((****))))

The weatherman had forcasted that Tuesday was going to be raining, and this time he was quite correct. Phineas still however wanted to walk to school that morning, so he grabbed a heavy duty umbrella and began the hike to school. About half of the way there, he saw another student walking slowly in front of him. Phineas picked up his pace and caught up the with the other person. Phineas thought he could recognized the purple hoodie as he caught up with the walker.

"Hey, can I offer to share my umbrella?" Phineas asked. The person turned and Phineas instantly recongnized the person. "Oh Isabella."

"Hey Phineas," Isabella greeted Phineas. Her eyes were blood shot and her hair was a bit messy.

"Are you ok?" Phineas asked, extending the umbrella over the girl. He may have been avoiding her around everyone else, but he was still going to act like a gentleman and friend.

"Yeah, I'm fine just… a little upset."

"Something wrong?" Phineas questioned as the two continued the short walk to school.

"It's just… It's been a year."

Phineas was confused. "What was a year ago?"

"It's the day that my abuelita passed away." Isabella choked on the sentence.

"Oh, that's right, that is today… Isabella I'm so sorry."

"It's okay," Isabella wiped away a tear. Phineas and Isabella walked underneath a large tree in front of the school. "It's just, I miss her so much." Isabella started to cry.

"Oh, I doubt I could ever understand how hard it must be. I wouldn't know what I would do if my grandmother died."

"This is just gonna be a long day." Isabella whispered.

"Well, is there anything I can do to help?"

"Not really, just, can you do me one favor?"

"Sure anything." Phineas replied. Isabella ran into Phineas, wrapping her arms around his stomach. Phineas was a bit surprised but knowing that this was something that Isabella needed, so Phineas slowly wrapped his arms Isabella as well. He could slightly hear Isabella sobbing into his chest. Phineas did what he figured was best and slightly squeezed Isabella into a tighter hug.

The duo stood underneath the tree in front locked in an embrace not really caring if a passerby saw. Slowly passing by in a black truck, another student noticed the couple and the embrace. He snarled his nose and pulled the ball cap he was wearing tighter on his head, slowly pulling into the school's parking lot.

As Isabella packed away from the hug, she wiped away a few more tears from her cheek. "Thanks, I really needed that."

"You're welcome I guess. You gonna be okay for the rest of the day?"

"I don't know, I think I'll be fine. And thank you for walking me to school." Isabella thanked.

"You're welcome." Phineas and Isabella jogged the short distance to the front of the school, starting the rest of the school day.


	8. Hot Cocoa

Isabella replaced a strand of hair that had escaped one of her braids. It was the holiday known as Halloween; and as per school tradition, everyone was allowed to wear a costume as long as it didn't violate normal school dress codes or something that was possibly offensive. As she put her books in her basket, she replaced the stuffed dog on top.

"Hey there Isabella," a guy in a nice dressed suit greeted Isabella.

"Morning Ferb," Isabella greeted.

"No, it's not Ferb today. Today I am agent double '0' '0'."

"Agent double '0' '0' wouldn't that be like triple '0'?"

"No its Agent double '0' '0'. But anyway, what is it that you're dressed up today' not that your sparkly shoes give it away."

"I'm Dorothy, you know from the Wizard of Oz." Isabella pulled her skirt out in a small curtsy.

"Of course and must I say you make a very nice Dorothy." Ferb commented.

"Why thank you. So, where is everyone else?"

"Well, just down the hall," Ferb pointed to a group of students, "the guy in the green shirt with the shield and sword is Bryan and the girl in the pink and purple with the two long blonde braids is Katie. You might know them as the characters Link and Zelda." Isabella raised an eyebrow. "They are from the video game series… you know what it doesn't matter. Also, the two vegetable mimosas are Baljeet and Ginger."

"Where's Addison?"Isabella asked.

"I'm right here." A white sheet with a bunch of holes in it walked up to Ferb and Isabella. Ferb and Isabella were confused at Addison's choice in costume. "Look I didn't know what to pick so I just used Charlie Brown's costume from the Halloween special."

"Ohhhh." Ferb and Isabella understanding the costume.

"I know that you came separate than brother but where is he?" Addison questioned.

"Aye lass, ye be looking for the scallywag Flynn?" A rough accent said behind them.

The three turned around to see Phineas dressed up in full pirate garb, including hat, eye patch, boots, even (plastic) cutlass.

"Wow bro, you really outdid yourself." Ferb complimented

"Definitely, if it wasn't for your head shape, I doubt that I probably wouldn't have recognized you." Addison added.

"Thank ye kindly," Phineas bowed, still using his accent.

"So all that's left is-" Ferb started.

"Dallas," Isabella interrupted. The group turned down the hall and watched as said person lumbered down the hallway, covered from head to toe in tinfoil, and face covered in silver face paint.

"Morning guys," Dallas greeted.

"Morning," the group replied.

"So I'm guess that you are the Tin Man." Isabella guessed.

"Quite right," Dallas confirmed. "I thought that I should match the best girlfriend ever." Dallas wrapped his arm around Isabella's side.

"Well, this shall certainly be an interesting day. When is it that everyone is dressed in costume and not questioned for their choices?" Ferb stated.

Everyone nodded and agreed with Ferb's statement, before heading off to their classes.

(*)(*)

"Here's some for you, and for you, and for… you." Isabella dished out some candy to a trio of trick-or-treaters that had come to their door.

"Thank you," the kids thanked Isabella before speeding off down to the next door.

The entire street was filled with decorations and trick-or-treaters as the annual parade of kids, teens, and parents marched up and down the street. Isabella set the bowl of candy down and fixed her spider web witches hat, and sat back down watching a special on TV. A few moments passed before another ring of the doorbell forced Isabella out of her seat, grabbing the bowl, she opened the door expecting another trick-or-treater or two.

"Oh, hey guys. Glad you made it."

"Thank you for inviting us." Phineas replied as Isabella stepped aside to allow Phineas, Ferb, and Addison inside.

"Well it wouldn't be Halloween if we didn't watch a few movies with friends."

"Can we still have a piece of candy?" Ferb asked, eyeing his favorite snack inside the bowl.

Isabella rolled her eyes. "Yes, of course you can." Ferb smiled as he picked out his favorite candy. "Oh Phineas," Isabella called closing the door and setting the bowl back down.

"Yes?" Phineas came to Isabella.

"Two questions; first," Isabella leaned in to whisper, "Why did you come? I know you've been avoiding places where I might be for two weeks."

"I needed a little convincing," Phineas glanced over at his brother, remembering their conversation, "but I decided that it would be better to just avoid the times where we could be alone, and come to the stuff were we would be in a group."

Isabella smiled. "Glad to hear it, but now my second question is why are you still wearing this eye patch?"

"Because he likes to wear it." Ferb called from the couch. "Says it makes him feel like a pirate."

Isabella shook her head. "Well Flynn, how are you going to watch movies with only one eye?"

"The same way you watch movies with 2 eyes." Phineas replied

The door bell rang before Isabella could give a rebuttal. Phineas walked into the living room while Isabella greeted more children.

((**)) ((**))

The night proceeded as normal as you could be on Halloween. The teens watched movies and would alternate answering the door for trick-or-treaters. Finishing watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" Ferb got out "The Brothers Grimm" and got it ready to play. Isabella shut the door after giving away what appeared to be the last bit of candy for the night and put the candy bowl into the kitchen.

As she walked back into the living room, she saw a chance to annoy Phineas. Seizing the chance, she tiptoed across the room and ripped of his eye patch.

Phineas yelped at her "attack" and the other three teens started to laugh. But Isabella was the first to stop laughing, seeing Phineas covering his eye with his hand.

"Phineas, you alright? Why are you covering your eye?"

"Oh no reason." Phineas looked away, reaching to scratch his neck.

"Liar!" Ferb yelled from across the room.

"Come on Phineas, it's not like I hurt you or anything." Isabella reached and removed his hand from his eye, seeing why we covered up.

His eye was nearly swollen shut, blue and purple covering the eye and the surrounding area. Isabella was shocked, didn't really even know what to say.

"Phineas, where did you get that black eye?" Addison asked.

"I was doing something stupid and just hurt myself. No big deal." Phineas answered, trying to hide his neck scratching.

"Phineas, stop lying to us." Isabella commanded. Phineas was surprised at her outburst. "I know when you're lying, just like Ferb can. You're not that great a hiding it."

Phineas' face turned red embarrassed at his current predicament. He had gone the whole day without worrying anyone and now the cat was out of the bag.

"I'll go get some ice." Ferb offered, heading to the kitchen.

"If you need help ask mom." Isabella called to Ferb. Turning back to Phineas, he had turned away, trying his best not to look at his friends.

"Phineas" Isabella said softly. Phineas didn't move. She said his name again, this time a bit louder. He turned his head slowly to face her. "What happened? Please tell me."

Phineas shook his head. "I can't"

"Can't or won't?" Isabella pressed.

"Won't," he admitted.

"And why the hell not?"

"Cause it's something I don't want you to worry about."

"What happened Phin? Tell me the truth."

"I... Got into a scuffle." Phineas explained as Ferb handed him a bag of ice for his eye.

"With who?" Isabella continued

"It doesn't matter."

"Yes it does. Please, just say who it is. It's not like I'm gonna go out and give them a black eye too."

Phineas looked at Isabella. He tried to think of something, anything that could get him out of the situation. But with Isabella stating at him, her eyes pleading for him to tell the truth, he couldn't lie anymore.

"It was..." Phineas mumbled the name.

"Say again?"

"...Dallas..." Phineas whispered, just barely enough for Isabella to hear.

Isabella was floored. She couldn't believe what she had heard. The one person that she thought would have never done something like this was the culprit. But her shock quickly turned to anger and it showed on her face. Taking a step toward her front door, Phineas grabbed Isabella by the wrist.

"Please Isabella, don't do anything about it. I deserved it anyway."

"No, no you didn't. Which is exactly why I need to say something now."

"No, you don't. Just... I can see that you're upset but just, sit down and enjoy the rest of the night. Don't let what happened to me be a killjoy."

This time it was Phineas' turn to plead. Isabella thought long and hard, but Phineas' words stuck with her and she conceded. Taking a deep breath and nodding in agreement she sat back down on the couch, and for the rest of the night the group watched movies till well after midnight.

((**)) ((**))

Isabella had finally decided that she was not going to sit by any longer. She had stewed the entire night about Dallas hurting Phineas. And having the need to say a few things to him anyway, she made a point to talk to him as soon as she could.

The sliding doors to the small market opened as Isabella stepped inside. Walking up to the cashier, she asked if Dallas was there. The cashier nodded her head and pointed down a few aisles. Isabella thanked her for her help and started walking down the aisles. Finally finding her prize, Isabella marched down the aisle to a guy putting cans from box to shelf.

"Hey Dallas." Isabella called out. Dallas put the few cans he had on the shelf before turning to Isabella."I need to talk to you."

"I'm kinda busy at the moment." Dallas replied, reaching again into the box.

"Well good, you can just listen for a little bit. First off, what the heck has gotten into you? You've acted like you have duct taped yourself to my side for two weeks. I mean I like to spend time with you, but you're getting to the clingy point. Oh and putting your arm around me every time you can is not exactly that attractive."

"I'm just trying to be a good boyfriend, babe." Dallas defended.

"Babe? I'm going to move on past that for my second point. Why in the world did you punch Phineas? He never did anything to you." Isabella questioned.

"He got too close." Dallas picked up the box and started down the aisle.

"Too close?" Isabella was confused.

"Oh don't act so innocent. I saw you with him the other day. You were all over him."

Isabella remembered the hug that she and Phineas shared a few days earlier. "Did you even care to ask why I was with him? If you had even been around me for a few minutes that day, you would have known that I was upset because it was the one year anniversary of my grandmother passing away." Isabella emphasized the last bit of her sentence.

"And I'm terribly sorry about that." Dallas feigned interest.

"Are you even caring about what I'm talking about here?"

"Trying to; if I said that I made sure that Phineas was going to stay away for a good while was what needed I believe that you should believe me; kinda the same way I don't want you to see Phineas except for classes."

"Wait, wait; are you telling me what you want me to do?" Isabella was stunned at what she was hearing.

"If you want to call it that, then I guess yeah." Dallas slipped into the storage area of the store, coming out a few minutes later with another box of goods.

"What has happened? Have I become a 'thing' to you? Like some kind of property that you own?"

"No, I just making some general suggestions about our relationship that I would like for you to consider and use."

"So yes, yes you are?" Isabella translated.

Dallas slammed the box down on the ground. "Yes I am alright!"

Isabella was fuming. "You- you- No good, dirty rotten, egoista, mente estrecha, pelmazo!" Isabella's Spanish coming out faster than her English was.

"Alright, I don't know what the heck you just called me, but I'm guessing you got it from your grandmother, including that rather unsightly poncho."

Isabella looked at her outfit. Wearing pink short sleeve shirt over a white long sleeve t-shirt with blue jeans, she was also wearing another article of clothing.

"It's called a Quezquémetl. It's a traditional covering that my grandmother hand made for me before she died." Isabella explained.

"What is the deal with you and your grandmother?"

"She is gone and was one of the people that I cared for the most. Which is something that I guess you never really did."

"Okay what did I never do?" Dallas was confused.

"Cared, Dallas… Cared." Isabella turned on her heel to walk out, but Dallas grabbed her wrist.

"Hey, where are you going?"

"I'm leaving Dallas, if that's okay with you?" Isabella asked sarcastically, jerking her hand out of his grip.

"Are you still coming with me to the show tomorrow?" Dallas called out.

"No, not anymore." Isabella replied, not missing her stride. Dallas yelled for her again, but she ignored him.

As the clouds again darkened the day, Isabella shoved her hands into her pockets as she took the short walk back home. As her anger and annoyance subsided, she realized how empty she now felt. She had spent such a long time with Dallas that now that she was going to be as far away from him as much as possible; she felt suddenly very alone. The November wind ruffled her covering, reminding her of the loss of her grandmother, making her sorrow grow.

A tear slid down her cheek as she thought more and more about what had happened. _Did I really like such a jerk? Have I started to act like him to my friends and family? Have I hurt those that I have really cared about? _Isabella thought to herself. She fell deeper and deeper into a funk. She needed to talk to someone, anyone that would care to listen.

About to turn up the sidewalk to her house, she could hear a power drill ringing in the cold air from across the road. Isabella quickly crossed the street and opened the gate. There she found Phineas, working on some project which she couldn't tell what it was.

"Whatcha' doin?" Isabella called above the roar of the drill.

Phineas looked up and quickly turned off the drill.

"Hey Isabella, come in." Phineas waved her over. As Isabella approached, Phineas could see Isabella was upset, a frown plastered on her face. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I just-" Isabella tried to finish, but choked on her words.

"Here, it looks like you need to talk. A nice hot cocoa might help some too." Phineas gave a small smile, his eye still swollen shut.

Isabella was still upset, but she nodded and followed Phineas into the tree house.

(((***)))(((***)))

Phineas finished adding some whipped cream to the top of the hot chocolates the machine has dispensed. Picking up the mugs, Phineas made his way over to the couch Isabella was sitting on.

"I keep forgetting how much is in here, not to mention that you insulated and fixed the tree house with A/C and heat." Isabella said.

"Well, it wasn't that hard when we were 12 years old. Now I and Ferb act like it's our own private condo." Phineas replied, handing a mug to Isabella, who gratefully took the cup from the red head. "Now, yesterday I said that I would avoid being alone with you, but seeing as how you appear in deep need of consoling, this will be an exception to my rule." Phineas sat down carefully to not spill the hot drink. "So, if it's not too big of a problem, may I ask why you look so down?"

Isabella took a quick sip of her beverage. "I just came back from the market down the street. I had gone down there to talk to Dallas." Phineas nodded his head as he followed along.

"And so I started asking him about how he had been so 'clingy' and why he had hurt you and just I was really confused about a lot of stuff." Isabella blew into her drink, taking the edge off the hot to keep from burning her tongue. "He said that he was just showing that he cared for me or some nonsense. And then when I said something about you, he said that you deserved, said that you were getting too close."

Phineas shrugged. "I guess to him I was too close, so I guess I did deserve it."

"No, no you didn't. I mean unless you were physically doing something there was no possible reason that he should have hurt you."

Phineas shrugged before taking another sip of his hot chocolate. "Alright so I'm guessing that there is more to this tale."

Isabella nodded. "Well, then he started as he put it 'suggesting' things that I should or shouldn't do, one of which was not to spend time around you anymore. But it wasn't suggested, it just felt like commands, and they were without any real merit."

Isabella stopped and drank some of her cocoa, allowing herself time to think. Phineas was as clueless about what to say. But to him it was more important to listen than it was comment.

"I guess I just feel like he was different from most guys, someone that was an actual honest to goodness gentleman that now he has pretty much done a 180 turn, I don't know what to do next. I just-"

"Don't want this to happen again?" Phineas finished. Isabella nodded yes. "Well, if I may so myself, if you do want to get into a new relationship, think about what kind of person that guy will be." Phineas tipped his mug higher to get to his drink. "I hope you don't mind me saying this, but I just want you to be happy."

Isabella giggled and smiled. When Phineas tipped his mug back, he had gotten whipped cream on his lip, giving a nice whipped cream mustache. "Phineas, you got a little something on your lip there." Isabella pointed.

Phineas tried his best to look down at his lip, but no matter how many funny faces or eye crossing he could muster, he just couldn't seem to find the whipped cream mustache. Not that Isabella minded; Phineas' antics had caused her to laugh, something she hadn't done in a long time.

Getting up from her seat, Isabella walked over and wiped the whipped cream off of his face. This embarrassed Phineas a little, but he took it as a friendly gesture. "Thanks."

"No, thank you. I really needed to talk before I got really upset." Isabella gave her mug back to Phineas how quickly dumped both mugs into an auto cleaning tube.

"So, is there anything else I can do for you?" Phineas asked.

"No, that's all for right now." Isabella quickly kissed Phineas on the tip of his nose. "Bye, thanks again." Isabella quickly climbed down from the tree house, leaving Phineas standing there rather flustered.

Phineas rubbed the tip of his nose, his cheeks turning a bit red. "Isabella kissed me…"


	9. Confessions

As the bell hanging over the door rang as another person entered the small sub shop. In the corner booth, in their normal spot, the small group of friends laughed at Ferb's joke, unaware of the new comer to the group.

"Isabella." Dallas called rushing to the table.

Isabella looked up to her ex, still not completely over what had happened the day before. "Hey Dallas."

"I need to talk to you… privately."

Isabella looked around the group of people; all except Phineas were confused as to why she didn't go to talk to him. "If you need to say something, you can say it in front of everyone."

Dallas gritted his teeth. "I insist." Dallas grabbed Isabella's hand to pull her up from her seat.

"She said you can talk to everyone." Everyone's head turned toward the speaker. "If she doesn't want to go, let her be." Phineas added.

Dallas stared hard at Phineas, but he let go of Isabella's wrist. "Who are you to tell me what I can or can't do?"

Phineas stared back. "I'm not. What I am telling you is that you shouldn't be trying to force her into something she doesn't want to do."

"Hey!" The argument between Dallas and Phineas had grown in volume and forced Bryan to speak up. "Dallas, either calm down, or I'm gonna have to kick you out for the night."

"You know we could take this outside." Dallas suggested.

Phineas turned and looked across the table at Isabella. She was worried and it showed. "You're right. Let's go talk."

Dallas was a bit surprised that Phineas agreed, but he almost immediately made his way toward the door. Phineas followed a few steps behind. As Phineas grabbed the door handle, Isabella stopped him.

"Phineas, what are you doing?"

"Something that should have been done a few days ago." Phineas smiled at his crush. "Don't worry bout me; I'll be fine."

Phineas walked out into the bright, yet cold night while Isabella stayed inside next to the door, the rest of the group pressed against the glass windows, hoping to see something. Dallas was already in the middle of the parking lot, pacing back and forth. Every few steps the light catching the steam off his breath.

Dallas stopped pacing as Phineas neared. "Since when did you get so high and mighty?"

"I haven't. I've just decided to stand up for something."

"Oh really, like your trying to become between me and Isabella?"

"What? No, I would never do that. Heck, I've tried to avoid doing that since school started."

"Oh don't give me that crap. I know that you two have been seeing each other behind my back." Dallas argued.

"Have you tried to figure out what was happening between me and her? I would have gladly stopped whatever I was doing if you asked, which I stress again that I never did anything." Phineas retorted.

"I'm just trying to protect Isabella."

"Protect her? You have hurt her more than you've protected her."

For Dallas, that was the final straw. Dallas reached and quickly shoved Phineas in anger, causing Phineas to fall hard to the ground. Isabella immediately rushed to the two fighting teens, hoping to prevent harm to either.

"Dallas, stop!" Isabella yelled. Dallas took a few steps back from Phineas as Isabella rushed to the red head. "What is wrong with you? When we first met, you would have barely hurt a fly; and now look at you. You've started to hurt everyone around you, including me."

Dallas froze as Isabella finished her statement. His mind drifted back to one of his old schools a few years ago…

_/_

_Dallas was walking down the hallway to his best girl friend, and former girlfriend, locker. She had recently started dating another guy, but he was just happy that he still got to be good friends with her. _

"_Hey Jessica." Dallas called, nearing her locker. He expected to see the normally cheery red head greeting him good morning. Instead her eyes were a little bloodshot and fresh tear stains were still fresh. "Jess, wh-what happened?"_

"_I caught Jeff making out with another girl. And when I went to up to him, he just blew me off, dumping me on the spot."_

"_Wow, Jess, I'm so sorry." Dallas reached and gave his friends a hug. He could see how much she was hurt but didn't know what to do. It was then at that moment that he vowed that he try and protect those he had a relationship with, trying his best to never hurt her in any way._

/

But now, Dallas watched as Phineas dusted himself off, assuring Isabella that he was fine, Dallas realized that he had instead done what he didn't want to do. Dallas opened his mouth to say something, but his thoughts failed him. Dallas just shook his head and quickly walked to his truck and sped out of the parking lot as fast as he could.

Phineas and Isabella walked back inside, Isabella wanting to be careful in case Phineas was hurt. As they finally sat back down in the booth, questions and comments began to fly.

"Phineas, are you hurt?"

"Is everything ok?"

"Where's Dallas?"

"What happened?"

After Phineas managed to calm everyone down, he retold the tale of what happened. As Phineas finished his tale, most of the group began to get mad at Dallas.

"He is such a jerk."

"I can't believe that he did that."

"You shoulda fought back."

"Guys settle down." Bryan commanded stepping out from behind the counter. "Look, I know that Dallas has been a jerk, but he had his reasons."

"Such as?" Addison pressed.

So Bryan began to tell of the Jess incident. Even Isabella had never heard the story before, and as Bryan finished, everyone's hearts began to soften some.

"Now, knowing Dallas, he feels really, really awful about all of this, especially after the way he left. Just don't be hard on him; he's hard enough on himself already. Tomorrow at school, act like nothing really happened tonight; Dallas needs the time to think on his own."

(*)(*)

The following day…

Phineas was tutoring Isabella, who need some help with her science work. Everything was going smoothly till a soft knock on the door sill stopped their work.

"Oh Dallas," Phineas greeted, now able to see out of both eyes.

"Hey guys, can I interrupt for a second?"

"Umm… yeah, I'm fine with that." Phineas looked at Isabella who nodded in agreement.

"I just wanted to um… you know… apologize for what I put you two through. I just thought I was doing what was right."

Phineas and Isabella remained silent, but nodded, urging Dallas to continue.

"I guess I had the right idea just probably not the right way of doing it. I just wanted Isabella to be happy, and instead I did more harm than good." Dallas paused a moment to collect his thoughts. "I know that me and you are done." Dallas directed at Isabella, "But I think it's for the best. And if you don't mind me saying, I think you two would be great together."

Phineas' face turned a little red and Isabella blushed a little.

"You to make each other happy just by being in the same room together; I'm sure that you two will figure something out." Dallas turned to head out the door. "Oh, and Phineas," Phineas straightened up to listen, "She's special, make sure you treat her as such." And with that, Dallas walked out the door, leaving Phineas and Isabella again alone in the classroom.

"Well, um… shall we finish these problems?" Phineas asked.

"Yeah sure." So they worked through the problems quickly, yet they knew they were considering the possibility of starting a relationship.

Within a few minutes the last problems were done and both were walking out the school to their cars. Isabella quickly said goodbye and tried to go to her car but Phineas stopped her.

"Wait Isabella, please."

"Ok."

"I just have to say something." Isabella waited for Phineas to continue. "Look, so far this year has been insane ride, and I'll admit that I'm feeling kinda nervous about saying this. I would like for us to be a 'couple' but I mean I don't know like what I should do or like the right things to say-"

Isabella put a finger on Phineas' lips to stop his rambling. "I understand and sure, I wouldn't mind us becoming something. In fact I had waited for years for you to feel this way; but nothing has to change. We're still going to be friends, we're still gonna do the same stuff we would do normally. The only thing that's going to change is the fact that people say 'they are boyfriend and girlfriend'."

Isabella smiled and Phineas smiled back. "Alright, I think your right. So I guess I'll just see you tomorrow?"

"Of course." Isabella kissed Phineas on the cheek. "Bye."

"Good bye."


	10. Snowed In

"Are you sure that's fine... Yes... Yes... Yes everything will be fine. I'll call in the morning... Love you too, bye." Addison hung up the phone that Ferb had provided.

"So?" Ferb asked.

"Mom said it would be fine as long as I call her I the morning. Since it's alright with your parents to stay, it was fine with her."

"Awesome. Also, it came across the news that the school will be cancelled for tomorrow. I'm loving this snow storm more and more."

Phineas rolled his eyes as he bounded back up the stairs to the theater room. Inside, Isabella was sitting patiently, watching the blooper reel of the movie they had watched.

"Well its official. School's been let out for tomorrow and Addison's stating here for the night.

Isabella stood up from the couch. "I think it's time for me to head back home then. I don't want to have to be a burden on you guys."

"No." Phineas said rather loud. Isabella was surprised and raised an eyebrow. "I mean uh... Don't leave yet, please. I- I- just... want to spend some more time with you." Phineas admitted.

Isabella smiled. "Sure Phin; Just bring a blanket over here. It's getting a bit chilly."

Phineas grabbed a blanket that was in a basket by the door and he handed it to Isabella as he say back down. Phineas picked up a remote and turned the movie off and then quickly turned on a radio that was playing some Christmas music. Isabella unfolded the blanket and spread it over her body. Faking a cold shiver, Phineas responded by pulling Isabella close to him, hoping to help warm her. Isabella sank deep into Phineas' chest, both parties enjoying the warm embrace.

"Phineas, can I ask you a question?" Isabella asked.

"Of course; what's the question?"

"Why do you like to spend so much with me?"

Without missing a beat, Phineas replied. "Easy, I just do."

"But why?"

Phineas shrugged. "I don't know really. I mean I love to see you smile, to see you happy, to see you being you."

Isabella leaned away to eye Phineas. "You being you?"

"Yes I know, not the greatest explanation. But that's just how it is. I don't care if you dress a certain way or act differently; I like you for you."

Isabella smiled and leaned in and kissed Phineas. Phineas melted, sliding down the couch till he was leaning back on the armrest. Isabella leaned back and lay down in his lap.

The soft music quickly caused the teens to fall into a peaceful sleep, Phineas clutching Isabella tightly with Isabella using Phineas' chest as a pillow.

* * *

**The Phineas and Ferb characters are property of Disney and their creators, Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh. The character "Dallas" is property of vcawarrior15. The character "Bryan" is property of ZaxSauce12. All other products and merchandise used in this story are property of the owners and no claim of ownership has been made by the author.**

* * *

**I want to thank everyone that has followed this story. When I originally wrote it, it was only supposed to be the first chapter and you were to decide on your own what happened. Instead, you guys have helped turned this into my most successful story ever. The feedback has just been so warm and helpful, I really have no place to begin. **

**I would like to thank 200trackrunner and Whythis for coming along and helping me with some ideas. The biggest thanks goes to my main beta and best friend, ZaxSauce12, for being the biggest help.  
**

**I'm announcing now that I will most likely have a sequel to this story someday in the future. I don't know what it will be called or all of the details but it will happen.  
**

**Again thank you all for following along on this story, and I hope you enjoyed it. If you would be so kind, review your thoughts of the story and please tell what your favorite parts are. (I like to know, it makes me smile.)  
**

**Carpe Diem,  
**

**vcawarrior15  
**


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